Birch Envy

Here is the beautiful and beckoning entrance to a birch grove walk in a "secret" area at a nearby beach.

Will has a bad case of birch envy, there was a gorgeous specimen in the front yard where he grew up.  We've purchased two so far -- a weeper and an ostensibly white variety (I think it was swapped with another while young) -- and they both are susceptible to leaf borers and lose their leaves during the summer, looking scraggly and bare by late August. The weeper is white but the other one isn't giving any indication of being inclined in that direction.

Our weeping birch. We hope it likes its new location.

Being the organic gardeners we are, we went only as far as to spray the leaves on both with dormant oil at the time the borers were hatching. They made it through OK this year, but though they may have kept more leaves, they both were summarily moved to other, less prominent, locations. Unfortunately, the heat of the summer and the stress of transplant left them both alive, but not at their best.

We gave this ostensibly white birch a
second chance in a less prominent spot.

Someday our birch will come -- a beautiful, white, multi-trunked specimen that will never need spraying and will rustle in the wind, cast dappled shade and play host to chickadees. Sigh.


AR