It's pretty much normal, as far as I can tell. I have 3 in a clump, all the same age, as I got them as dug-up seedlings from under a friend's trees, put them all in the same planting hole about 5 years ago, and looked after them well - one is about 3 times the height and girth of the other 2, but they are finally starting to grow up this year, so I have hopes they will catch up. It's really noticeable now, as they are still small, but in another 5-6 years, it won't be at all obvious. The various trunks on a multi-trunked clump of birch do tend to lean out a bit - it gives each trunk better exposure to the light. Yours are no worse than many I have seen, and better than some, in that regard. It's part of what makes multi-trunk trees interesting, IMO. Keep the clump well watered, esp. if it's dry in the summer, and maybe expand the bed/mulched area out a bit wider. I wouldn't throw fertilizer at them to try to "fix it" as I doubt it would do much good. A light feeding with a balanced, slow release fertilizer should be OK. And be very careful using weed-and-feed products on the lawn around the birch.

Yes, I have seen the three tree method that some growers use to produce multi trunk ornamental trees. I even planted a paperbark maple tree that had been handled like that. One of the paperbark trunks dominated and the other two died off each at different times. It did not seem to matter what I did to try and save those, they still died while the dominant one thrived as if no stressors of any kind existed for it. Also planting three young trees together is the technique I myself had tried to get a multi trunked River Birch tree. Five years later, one of those trunks thrived and now has a 3 inch wide trunk with beautifull pealing bark, and which has grown to about 10 feet tall. The other two trunks are currently about 4 feet shorter, also with some bark pealing and with only about 1 inch in trunk diameter. This drastic imbalanced look is why I dug the two shorter trunks, and now have them in bare root form. I have seen other reports of people having success at growing a new single main leader by the cutting back nearly to the ground of the damaged main leader. Of course those damaged trees are usually fairly well established. So I do not know why I could not do the same thing with my single trunked birch trees. That is, as long as I do it at the right re-established root development point. Is this truely a bad idea? I do think that my trees are nearly twice as mature than what past growers generally used for clumping out multi trunk birches, but if I do not begin the process to eventually prune out the current one inch wide trunks for these two trees; they too will likely dominate too much over any new sprouts which I might get to pop up out of each of their own root balls. I have also seen what you suggested concerning the trunks of clumps spreading to far; that is on a neighbor's birch that has only two leader trunks, and which is almost 30 years old. Is my only other option to keep them as single trunked trees. Is this delima, also why I have had such a difficult time finding young multi-trunked Heritage birch trees at my local nurseries. Also am I wrong in thinking a three trunked rootball would tend to grow more slowly and end up with less height potential if all three trunks emerging from one rootball grew at a relatively well balanced rate, and no trunk is allowed to remain, which seemes to so drastically dominate over the other two.

I too love birches and would love a little wood of them. I would plant Scottish bluebells under them en mass. A seed trading friend of mine in California sent me three bags of birch seeds (besides the ones I got myself from the little tree at Lowe's). They are European Birch, White American Paper Birch and one other that I cannot recall off hand. I read that they had to be fresh or they wouldn't grow, so I didn't planted them. But now, I think I will go ahead and try sprouting them. What have I got to lose? I think if I put them in very soggy paper towels and stick them in plastic bags, they should sprout, as that is where they sprout best in their natural environment - on the banks of brooks and rivers where it is very wet. Worth a try. Eduarda, I appreciate your input. Muito Obrigada! ~Annie

I wanted to make sure I am perfectly clear here. I do not believe Mission Stone & Tile is in anyway "rigging" this contest. I understand the frustration that people feel when they vote and don't see their vote count. I can't explain that. Regarding Shandi, when the contest was started entrants described where they would use this tile. She described herself as an Interior Designer and this would be for a bar owned by her fiancee's family. She was decorating/renovating it for them. The reason she is on their facebook page is simple. When the contest started it was going to be a random drawing, and your chances of winning could be increased if you "liked" Mission Stone. I"m not a facebook person, so pardon my "lingo". That is the reason you see her with the full "vote for me" stuff over there. There are other people too, but they didn't return with their photos, if you scroll down you can see them say "I hope I win, etc." Mary Elizabeth Hulsey and I exchanged emails this evening. She wanted me to convey to everybody that this is a "Free Giveaway". Ok gang, I'm just exhausted. I don't think I will post about this anymore. I will post the end results for all of you when the voting ends, but, really, I personally don't want to discuss it anymore.