Dwarf River Birch

Dwarf River Birch
Betula nigra 'Fox Valley'
(BET-yoo-luh) (NY-gruh)
Betulaceae
Synonyms: Little King

This is one of my favorite trees in the garden. It is almost an exact replica of its larger cousin Betula nigra ‘Heritage’ without the big size. I planted my grove of 6 ‘Little King’ in 1995, four years after the tree was released by King Nursery of Oswego, Illinois. The final height is 10 -12 feet and the spread looks to be 8 to 10 feet. I like the densely packed twigs and of course the exfoliating bark is nice all year but really brightens up the winter garden. The bark on ‘Little King’ starts to peel at an early age compared to the larger River Birch. The foliage is double serrate and attractive, and I haven’t had any problems with insects. I have noticed the fall color is nothing really to speak of, often times the leaves just turn brown, although some autumns it has a nice yellow fall color.

There are two reasons I favor River Birch over most of the other species of Betula. They seem naturally resistant to leaf miner and the Birch Borer that can be such a nuisance with Birch cultivation. Another reason I like River Birch is that it can grow in tough conditions including bottom land and even periodically flooded areas. It grows in part shade area (although prefers full sun) and almost any soil type as long as there is enough moisture available.

This tree won the prestigious Cary Award in 2007 and I would have to agree that it is an outstanding tree for grove planting, accent or specimen planting or even a deciduous hedge. The Cary Awards are named after Ed Cary of Shewsbury, MA and are awarded to distinctive plants that have proven themselves in the New England landscape. They have three purposes:
1. To inform home gardeners which plants would be good choices in their landscape.
2. To instill confidence in the home gardener's plant selection.
3. To increase the diversity of plant material utilized by gardeners, landscape designers and architects.


I took these pictures at work yesterday, it was beautiful weather although there wasn’t much in the garden to see. The almost inch of rain we had last night probably got rid of much of the snow that was left.

"I heard a bird sing in the dark of December
A magical thing and sweet to remember.
We are nearer to Spring than we were in September,
I heard a bird sing in the dark of December."

Oliver Herford