Betula papyrifera

I just love the fall color of the native Birches. They're a bit more subtle than the flamboyant Red Maple, but their vibrancy is second to none IMO. This one is a volunteer that popped up about 10 years ago. It had five stems that I pruned it back to three.

Pic #2

Okay, Rick, you just did a major payback for every time I've posted a nice picture of something I can grow but you can't!!! I'd almost move to Zone 4 to be able to grow a nice stand of Paperbark Birches! Somehow northern jots to visit with them just makes me want to grow them even more. Beautiful shot of a beautiful tree!

Scott

When four of my uncles move to Florida (from northern MN), they each brought paper birch with them. Needless to say, none survived for too long. But it does show that you (Scott) and Bob are not in the minority. Even in Minneapolis, most birch are short lived. But they are still native in some of the cool, moist valleys.

I have some Bog birch (Betula glandulifera) seedlings turning color now. It's a pleasant surprise to see that they are not just purple, but include shades of pink in their color progression.

Rick

For a minute there I thought Scott confused me/us with that famous NASCAR driver Ricki Bobbi. Some of the native Birch around here were stressed from the mid-summer drought, but those growing in the company of other trees (like this one) seemed to do OK. Rick, have you taken a drive on Hwy 61 along Lake Superior lately? I was up there about a month ago and was saddened by how many of the Paper Birch were dead or severely stressed. Any idea what's going on up there?

Decumbent, you could always try Betula jacquemontii or B. albo-sinensis.

I have a two clumps of four trunks each in the lower part of my back Yard in South Lyon Michigan. I planted them in 1991. They are doing great but I do water them regularily to reduce stress. They were suppose to be Betula nigra 'Heritage' but apparently the nursery mislable them. Yea, right...

Superb trees, but complete non-starters in Ohio - they'd be dead in the space of a year or two from Bronze Birch Borer (an eastern American insect to which Asian and European birches have no resistance at all; only River Birch has full resistance, other American birches have moderate resistance, the less the further north they come from)



Quite likely BBB, spreading north into areas previously too cold for it, because of global warming.

Resin

Gosh, I didn't know. Sounds like the pine beatle devastating BC forests.

Resin is right. People do grow B. jacquemontii here, but not well and not for long. For birches, we are pretty much restricted to Betulus nigra.

Scott

I don't know where this myth that jacquemontii is BBB resistant came from. Isn't it a Himalayan tree? But I here the "advice" again and again.

It's been a long time since I've been on the North Shore during fall color up, and otherwise about a year and a half. I keep thinking there will be people everywhere(true?) in fall, and for me, that really wrecks what I want that experience to be. The drought up there is been extreemly bad in some areas, while others (like where our cabin is near Ely), not very. I agree with what Resin said, and the increased building up there isn't helping either. It's amazing how much cooler a REAL forest can be, as opposed to one dotted with houses that people call cabins these days.