Silver Birch question

Virtus · Rank attained: Hazel Tree Joined: 31 Mar 2014 Posts: 20

Hi there,

We have a silver birch which has been growing in our front garden for roughly ten years or so. My question is should I be looking at pruning it or not. I was going to take some height of it, carefully I might add, however I have been having second thoughts as it looks quite nice the way it is.

Also, it has been thriving in a usually quite wet area of the garden where most of the other trees seem to be doing quite badly. Would it be wiser to cut it a bit now to save future headache?

Sive · Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 7:27 am Post subject:

I have seen silver birches which have been lopped to reduce their height and they never seem to look quite right ever again. I'm not sure how you can reduce the height without doing this. Maybe a tree expert would help.....

Greengage · Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 4:22 pm Post subject:

I would leave well enough alone lopping the top makes them look ugly and causes further damage as any new growth will have what is known as bad angle of attachment, therefore sudden gusts of wind from the right direction will cause failure of the branch.

My Potatoes · Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 9:03 pm Post subject:

You should only prune silver birch in the depths of winter, say mid-December. At other times of year it is prone to exude sap which is dark and unsightly and you want to avoid this.

Silver birch has a lovely trunk but you cannot really see this in your tree. You need to remove those side branches one the lower two metres to expose that white bark.

I see nothing wrong with the height, unless you're worried about it shading the lawn which may encourage moss.

Good guy · Posted: Wed May 28, 2014 11:08 pm Post subject: Buggered-up birch

This is what happens all too often . By all means remove some lower branches next winter to reveal the trunk but don't touch the top.

member11809 · Guest

Some say the growth rate slows after ten years

My Potatoes · Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 10:28 pm Post subject: Re: Buggered-up birch

Good guy · Posted: Thu May 29, 2014 10:50 pm Post subject:

I think it was probably done out of sheer ignorance. There are some very unqualified people operating around here. A lot of people only ever think of "cutting it back", whatever 'it' is, not of shaping according to a natural habit of growth. And many people seem to be frightened by anything that grows vigorously.
If the idea was to protect the house, total removal would have been a better idea.