River birch 'Summer Cascade'. Why are leaves turning brown?

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Lori_S Summit, NJ(Zone 6b) Oct 03, 2007

We planted a betula nigra 'Summer Cascade' (river birch 'Summer Cascade') in May and it seemed to be doing ok until recently.

Now most of the leaves are dry, brown, and curled up, and have some with roundish holes about the size of a pin-head. There are a few healthier leaves left, mostly at the end of the branches, but a few in the middle surrounded by dry leaves. Even the healthier leaves show darker, discolored patches, and something small and white on them.

I'll add 2 more posts here to get all 3 pictures in. The first picture shows one of the leaves that is still green.

Any ideas, and any ideas on treatment and how serious this is?



Thanks. -- Lori


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Lori_S Summit, NJ(Zone 6b) Oct 03, 2007

Here's a branch with both brown and green leaves.

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Lori_S Summit, NJ(Zone 6b) Oct 03, 2007

Here's the overall tree, which as you can tell is not very attractive at the moment.

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Resin Northumberland, United Kingdom(Zone 9a) Oct 03, 2007

It is October!

Otherwise, the plant looks desparately short of sunlight - birches need full sun to do well. They are among the least tolerant of shade of any trees.

Resin

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frans530 Rankin, IL(Zone 5a) Oct 03, 2007

I agree with Resin. It IS October.
Mine is 2 yo, last year and this year it has done the same thing. The odd thing is, with most other trees, they have a way of telling you it is fall, with the river birch it kind of fades like a dying tree. I was so scared last year when it happened, but it perked up this spring and did beautiful all season long.. about 2 weeks ago it started it's drama of "I'm gonna die now!" lol
Oh, mine is in full sun.
Fran

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Lori_S Summit, NJ(Zone 6b) Oct 03, 2007

Resin and Fran,

Thank you for what sounds like wonderful news. We really like this tree and don't want to lose it. The tree is in a spot that compared to most of our garden beds is sunny, I'll look around, but I'm not sure I'll be able to move it.

Thanks. -- Lori

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