I see the original post is over 14yrs old, but last post was 7days ago so clearly others are like me and still reading this post. Sad the OP never commented what they ended up doing. I'm in a similar situation but the area I'm looking to fill isn't near the house. Have deep yard and apx 10yrs ago planted a maple apx 7-10ft from our back fence that was supposed to be a fast growing tree but has only grown maybe 2-3ft tall in that time and mere inches in width. Talking to the place originally got it apparently had poor choice in where planted it as we planted it in the natural drainage section of our yard and we get a lot of runoff from the houses that sit higher then us. However being in Texas its dry more often then its wet. When it is wet its like the original poster posted can be wet/marshy for close to a week. Tree farm had some recommendations for the maple, my preference of their recommendations is to move it to a drier part of the yard. We have the room to do so would just bring it closer to the house and an established red oak we have and has handled the water well. Not looking to "fix" our drainage issue. Its doing what its supposed to keep the water from building by the yard and have a french drain that carries the excess water between the houses. The only thing the water impacting the maple does is impact this maple and make the grass a little swampy for a few days after heavy rains. Just looking for a tree that can handle this "temporary swampiness" and also our largely hot & dry climate and clay soil. Would like to put something in the hole digging the maple out of so asked the guy looking to have do the work for recommendations and he recommended Bald Cyprus, River Birch & Sycamore. In researching these three I found Weeping Willow which he said could also work. Which is why I'm posting here. Pretty much between the River Birch and the Weeping Willow. LIke the long growing season of the Willow, but think prefer the look of the River Birch. Didn't rule the Sycamore out but don't care for the seedlings it will drop as the red oak already makes a mess with its acorns. Several recommended the bald Cyprus and would like to note for those that don't have experience with an established Bald Cyprus. They are nice looking trees however in my opinion they are one of the messiest trees. Needle leaves & seedlings they drop are mess and worst of all they have what people refer to as "knees" that are the tree roots that pop backup in the yard which are a real hassle when cutting your yard. I would highly recommend against just for the knees, which would also be a hazard for anyone walking or playing in the yard. Reading others comments think might be now leaning the river birch or the sycamore. Several commented relative short life of the weeping willow which is a concern, though don't plan to be in the house long enough for that to be an issue. I think for our situation River Birch or deal with the seedlings from the Sycamore and go that way are the best options. Hope my post might help others. I'll try to remember to come back and post picture of the results once we buy and plant our new tree.

pat.. if you started your own post.. and checked the box.. replies would come to your mail ... the tree looks telephone-poled.. planted too deep .. can you start your own post.. and put a better pic of where the trunks go into the soil .. with the mulch pulled back ... have you dug a hole.. and found out.. how much water is actually in the root mass??? and.. as stated.. new transplant???? ken

You did not say how long your Birch trees have been growing on the property. If they are well established, you most likely are not considering how wide spreading birch root systems are. If you are putting a hose on the tree, that would not provide the needed water as quickly as the trees need. It would rather be creating a situation where the area around the hose, or where ever gravity draws the water, is watered enough to become deep watered, but the trees wide spreading roots could still remain dry. Additionally very few of the roots will benefit from the deeper soil moisture. Birch roots grow to the depth of the first foot or two of the soil, and they can spread across areas as wide as two, three, or more times farther than the birch's canopy spreads. It would be better to use a sprinkler system that is designed to broadcast the water; not only around the base of the trees, but also around the extended surface area where the trees roots may have spread. Another thing you might need to adjust is how soon you take note that the trees need watering. Do you watch and water at the very first signs of stress the trees show; or do you only jump into action, trying to respond when you see yellow leaves on the tree with some being shed? If you can respond to your trees need for help, before their damage results in the trees going into a kind of shock, then they should bounce back much more quickly.

That root you see is most likely seeking the moisture, which the mulch is holding. Three years ago, I planted three single trunked Heritage river birch trees in an area which sometimes gets flooded to an about 4 inch depth whenever the area experiences frequent rain periods. In the hot humid summers the soil dries out well. The Soil is a silty loam, and when I planted these trees I found that the soil had been hard packed by the frequent yearly flooding. The planting turned out to be a lot of work because of the effort it took to dig that hard of soil. This was especially hard since at the same time I installed 5 "T" stakes for keeping the wind from whipping the young trees and tearing their roots. This is on a vacant, slightly larger than half acre residential lot. That means any watering I give any of the trees I plant on that lot has to be trucked there. For this reason, I have not supplimental watered these riverbirch trees. Still, during the last three years, I have never seen any surface roots, growing from these birch trees, along the surface of the soil. Three years ago I could not find any clumped Heritage birch trees at any of my local nurseries. And many of my local nurseries did not have any birch trees for sale. The nursery owners, at that time, told me that the demand for birch trees had drastically decreased, so it was no longer affordable to stock birch trees. The reason for this decreased customer demand? Several nursery owners told me that customers found out that roots from birch trees they had planted did too much damage to their sidewalks and other concrete structures. Even though no nursery would sell me a 10-15 gallon sized clumped Heritage River birch, I still wanted that tree for this area on my lot where no concrete or asphalt stuctures would ever need to be installed near enough for the roots to damage. That is why, once I found a nursery who had 3 gallon sized potted single trunked Heritage birches for sale, I purchased three of them and planted them in a triangle about 2 feet apart. Since planting, our area has encountered a couple very dry and hot years with drastic sudden drop and rising of temps during those year's winters. We even experienced one winter event where light rain fell off and on for three days in 28-32 degree temps. This created heavy layers of damaging ice on the local trees' branches and even trunks. Many of these trees suffered massive branch failure, and some on some of the trees in the area, their main leader trunks even snapped off. Last winter when I checked my property for ice damage, I found that my Heritage birch trees needed to have a few broken branches pruned away. After pruning they looked quite bare. This years' growing season has turned out to be one of the wettest years I can remember occuring locally. So now those well established birch trees have recovered and look the strongest I have have ever seen them. Even with all the stress my trees have encountered, they still are not showing any signs of growing surface roots. I do not know why. Maybe it could be due to fact that, after the breakdown of the first application of mulch I gave them, I never reapplied any mulch under these birch trees. The only reason I have been able to get away with not continuing to mulch them might be because, growing nearby my birch trees on the neighboring property, there is a multi-trunked pecan tree, which provides afternoon shade for them.