By Suziliz
United Kingdom 
I have a young silver birch that appears to be dying.
It is in a city garden, approx 8feet high and is in between a very young maple and a young hornbeam, both of which are fine.
We planted it when it was about 5 feet high and for the last few years it has grown very well, but this year the leaves are very small and sickly and over the last few weeks, 80% of them have gone crispy brown. The rest are small but still green. The bark has an orange/brown tinge.
I am watering it regularly and have given some plant feed.
I was looking on the web and one suggestion might be 'bronze borer'? Or is that not found in the UK?
Another said that a late frost in Spring might have damaged the leaf buds, but I can't recall any heavy frost.
I would appreciate any help! Thankyou
9 Jul, 2010
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We did have cold weather and late frosts this year - April was hot, May was cold with frost in various parts of the country.
Birch doesn't like root disturbance - have you dug around the base of the plant at all in the last year? They're also relatively shallow rooting, and therefore may suffer from drought when other plants around them are not. The other thing is, you say it's in between two other trees - what is the distance from the Birch to each of the other trees? If they are too close, then the Birch may well be losing out on nutrients, water and root room because its in between two other trees.
9 Jul, 2010