midwest jeff, don't give up on the white birch trees, I was told that white birc trees would never grow in Louisiana, however I have had one for five years now growing just fine. It is a cutleaf white birch that I ordered from forestfarm and it is growing here in the hot humid south. However I do water it at least once a week whether we had rain or not, it is planted on the north side of my house, so the roots stay a little cooler, and have a lot of mulch around it, so just keep trying with them. When I lived in Minnesota I had a lot cutleaf white birch trees and not a single one of them died from BBB, you just have to give them a little more special attention, also plant birch trees on the north and east sides of your home, they seem to do a lot better.

Clump form from a commercial grower is several planted close together. Over time this backfires unless the combination if planted where side shade keeps it vertical, otherwise the trunks lean away from one another. The low forking seen in these pictures is do to site conditions - and noticed how the second tree is just like the one asked about, except for the clearly visible black areas. And that the bark is white until it gets old enough to be partly black, this is typical for B. pendula. At first there is some brown, then mostly white with small black areas, followed by large black areas once enough time has elapsed. The tree first asked about probably has a little black on it that we can't see in the photo used.

Here's a better view of the empty bed that I want to plant something in this Fall (between the Emerald Greens and the Yellow Ribbon and also to the left of the Yellow Ribbon. Secondarily, this is what I see when I walk out my front door and then from the sitting area on my veranda; right on a corner so very exposed. Since unfortunately there's a huge utility pole RIGHT in front of my house, I have to make the best out of a poor situation. I was thinking of having somewhat of a screen eventually with the Ginkgo biloba, Alberta spruce, and Bloodgood Japanese maple; then taper downward toward the walkway with the (please excuse any spelling errors) Picea pungens 'Globosa', Chamaecyparis obtusa, and Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Gold Mop'. Also in that front bed there's Artemisia schmidtiana 'Silver Mound', Sagina subulata 'Aurea', and Sedum acre 'Aureum'. Here's what I have at the other end; a few of which will be getting moved this Fall. This bed consists of Juniperus squamata 'Blue Star', 3 Euonymus (that were salvaged from previous homeowner's beds), Purpleleaf Sandcherry (was also there from previous homeowner but I never moved it due to its size). I replaced the grass around the Sandcherry with what you see here. In this bed there's also Juniperus sabina 'Calgary Carpet', some Festuca glauca 'Elijah Blue', Picea abies 'Nidiformis', Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Vintage Gold' (definitely getting moved this Fall; notice right side of plant that's not thriving due to lack of direct sun light...plus it would need to get moved anyway due to proximity to Sandcherry and Euonymus). This is directly in front of my veranda that all I've done is get rid everything that was there except one shrub (planted too close too), and put down some mulch to help suppress weeds until I can redo the walkway into something wider and more flowing, and then figure out what to do. This was from Spring 2011 when I was figuring out the new main walkway. Notice a few less plants. Thank you very much. Looks I'll be doing a lot of reading about the suggestions made :) Regarding the large Alberta spruce beside the entrance; it's unfortunate that it's so close to the house and not in more of an open space. It looks very bulbous in relation to the scale of everything else, but it'll probably stay for a while until the yard is more complete and then I can reassess. Sorry for the large low-end photos.

For a pretty good list (you wouldn't be using the UK suppliers listed, of course, and not all of the Himalayan birch cultivars are likely to be available stateside)... Note that if you "Click on a plant name entry to see its details in the RHS Horticultural Database" and then click on 'The Award of Garden Merit' on that second page, a third page opens with a basic description of the plant, for example "Medium-sized deciduous tree, slender and open in habit, bark peeling, pinkish to coppery red-brown, with white bloom. Leaves oval, strongly toothed, turning yellow in autumn. Flowers in brown catkins" for B. albosinensis. Here is a link that might be useful: RHS Plant Finder Search Results