Trees, Shrubs and Conifers: Struggling river birch, 1 by ndub

ndub wrote:
I have a river birch that I planted in fall '03. It did beautifully for two years, including last year, when it doubled in size. It had a perfectly normal fall last year, but when spring came, it didn't bud out much and made very few leaves, and those it did make were sort of curled under at the edges. I looked it up and saw that its native areas are swampish. We'd had a dry summer, and fall, almost no snow, and hte beginning of the spring was rainless. Although it looked hopeless, I LOVE the tree, so I started watering it heavily in May. After a few weeks, some new growth started, so I cut off the wood that looked dead, as it seemed to have spidery things on it and it wasn't contributing anyway. I also sprayed it for aphids and beetles. After watering it continuously, it has filled out, although it's still a bit bare in the middle.

My questions: does anyone think that the water issue was the problem? Having had a hard year this year, can it come back and be normal next year (and WILL the middle fill in?

Any ideas/suggestions would be appreciated