Avalanche Birch
Betula x 'Avalzam'
(BET-yoo-luh)
This White Birch was growing in the Rock Garden at the New York Botanical Garden. Of the 120 plus plants I have researched for this blog this is the only one that the species was unknown. I saw it listed as European White Birch, Paper Birch and Asian Birch. The best information came from: http://members.tripod.com/~Hatch_L/betu77.html
(Sorry but I still haven’t figured out how to put a clickable link in these posts.) I found that website an excellent source for Betula information. Anyway, it says Storrison-Harrison Nursery brought the tree to the US from Japan in the 1930's. It also said the that it gets 50 feet tall and 30 feet wide, which sounds about right for the tree I saw. It is considered to have higher than average resistance to Bronze Birch Borer. I gave up on White Birch a while ago. I won’t plant it unless the customer ‘has’ to have it. There are just too many cultural problems associated with it. I did recently plant some Purple Leaf White Birch in a purple garden I built. They get treated with Merit every year. I will always try and plant a River Birch these days although if the opportunity arose to use a White Birch I would probably chose this one. The bark was white but had some peeling spots that showed some pinkish underneath. You can tell its getting late in the season when I am shooting pictures of bark.
No comments:
Post a Comment