answer me this batman.. who paints the trees in the forest.. that live a couple hundred years.. no one!!!! if God had meant trees to be painted.. he would have given the trees arms to paint themselves .. and very large cars to get to the paint store... dont you think ... listen to me... with NO INSULT to the root mass.. these trees will explode with advantageous growth.. it is imperative.. that you properly prune them before that growth ... stuff happens.. you know what i mean.. and you remove DAMAGED parts.. and then let the plant.. next year.. respond ... if after next year or the year after .. you find that it needs some guidance.. or shaping ... then think about that then ... simply repair or remove damage.. and then give them time to get their act together ... put simply.. i am of the opinion.. that damaged parts are removed IMMEDIATELY .... w/o hesitation.. and without thought as to when the proper time is.. i prune trees.. when i walk by with the saw.. 24/7/365 .... the proper time to remove damage.. was 2 hours before you made this post ... if there is damage high up.. and it threatens anything or anyone.. hire that job out.... or die in your sleep when it falls on your house .. a bit of drama there.. to motivate you .. lol .. ken

It is really quite simple Ken. I know quite a bit about plants in general, but recently became interested in birches. I learned what I could from them, which is enough to positively ID quite a few species. However, I was slightly confused because I read a few erroneous bits of information that claimed no birch ever comes true from seed. However, Thanks to common sense and the input from the fine folks of this site, I was able to piece together that named cultivars do not come true to type, but pure species do. The groves I collected seeds from were pure species. One grove had nothing but Betula Pendula, so the collected seeds are most likely Betula Pendula. There were no other birches for miles around (except more pendula, though the concentration became less dense the farther out you went.) Because of the rather large radius of only pendula being around, I can safely say I have pure pendula seed. The same applies to the Japanese White Birch. This grove was on someone's private property (I got permission to collect seeds). Again, this grove was started from pure betula platyphylla and no other birches were found for miles. I collected seeds from the center of each grove to have the best chances of pure seed collection. In short, I was just a bit confused about birches coming true to type from seed, but it was cleared up. I do not have seeds from named cultivars, I essentially have wild type seeds. On an unrelated note, Ken, what's with all the "...." ?

I know we "lurkers" aren't supposed to be posting here, but as a born-and-bred Yankee, I couldn't resist this post. . . Growing up in the woods, nothing says New England more to me than maples and birches - there always seem to be plenty of maples around wherever I've lived, but it was up to me to provide the birches. VERY fortunately, when I finally had my first garden in New York City some years ago, I did my research. . .and learned about the dreaded BBB's. . . But I ALSO learned about Betula nigra, which is rarely affected by them, and had the additional attraction of usually being offered for sale in clumps. So, back in the early 1980's, some little 4' "twigs" from White Flower Farm went into the backyard. . .and all these years later, there is still a magnificent clump of birch thriving in Manhattan (I can still see them from the street over the 3-story high buildings!) I have long since moved on to New Jersey, and there is a massive 7-year-old clump of Betula nigra in my front yard, with spectacular peeling bark that is the envy of the neighborhood; and around back - you guessed it! - there is an even bigger 10-year-old clump. . .although I DID have to remove one trunk because it was leaning dangerously far into my neighbor's yard and he got nervous. . . If I had my druthers, I'd use nothing BUT Betula nigra. . . good luck! Carl (WHO-O-O-S-S-S-H. . .that's the sound of a lurker going back into hiding. . .)

Yeah, you'll be lucky to find that one in the trade. Nurseries that cater to reforestation efforts might be a good bet. And now, a word or two about Betula papyrifera, aka white birch, paper birch, canoe birch: This tree, native to NE USA and adjacent Canada, all the way up to the Arctic Circle, is much maligned, partly due to confusion between it and the non-native white-barked Betula pendula or European white birch. The latter is a bronze birch borer magnet, and since back some decades, it seemed a non-native plant was always held to be superior to our own native flora, many of these things got planted all over the place. They are not a suitable tree for N. America, due to this same BBB, a native pest of some birch species. BBB can afflict our native B. papyrifera, but if the tree is well sited, ie. head in the sun, roots cool and moist, it actually has very good resistance to BBB. You won't often hear that, even from well educated tree people, but t'is true. Because it has evolved along with the insect, it has reasonably good natural defenses to same. Now take that same tree out of it's cool, moist environment, plop it down in some stripped-out suburban yard, forget about water, and look, the tree is "sick", meaning of course, BBB got to it, as it does tend to attack stressed trees. There is a concurrent insect problem of birch as well, the birch leaf miner. Larvae of that insect tunnel around within the leaf, causing stress to the tree. But alone, leaf miner is not likely to kill a birch tree. It's just another factor thrown in the mix. Location, location, location! +oM