Birches

Winter is a great time to appreciate the bark of birch trees, and the graceful tracery of their branches.  Varieties of the Himalayan birch have the most eye-catching white bark, such as Betula utilis var. jacquemontii, B. utilis ‘Grayswood Ghost’, and ‘Jermyns’ which also has very attractive long catkins.  Perhaps whitest of all is ‘Silver Shadow’.  The bark of Betula albosinesis var. septentrionalis is a warmer, grey-pink coppery colour.  Our own native silver birch Betula pendula is especially valuable to wildlife, also available as a cut-leaf form B. pendula ‘Laciniata’.  Birches can be grown as multi-stem specimens to get the maximum area of bark.

Plant of the moment Jan 2010