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Aberdeenshire, Scotland Sco

I bought 6 silver birch bare root saplings the other week (currently stuck in a bucket of water in the greenhouse). They are about 2 ft tall at the minute.

At the nursery we were taken with the multi-stem SBs they had but we certainly weren't so keen at spending £120 apiece. The GC assistant said we could 'clump together the saplings to get the same affect, but I'm worried in case, years down the line, we end up with problems and basically they look crap!
Has anyone else done this? How far apart should we plant them? I initally thought on 2 clumps of 3 saplings.

Thanks in advance!




Answers

 

Which variety of silver birch are they, specifically?

8 Mar, 2012

 

Am also interested in what variety the sold you. You can make a multi-stemmed birch by buying a sapling and removing the leading stem, allowing the lateral branches to grow and eventually form a multi-stemmed tree. Himalayan Birch is best variety for that. Have not seen it work well on native UK Betula's!, hence I am interested to know what they sold you.

8 Mar, 2012

 

And that's why I asked as well, Kildermorie - jacquemonti particularly tends to form 3 or 4 stems as it grows quite naturally anyway.

8 Mar, 2012

 

It does seem to work on the native B.pendula. I am thinking of forestry situations where the trees are deliberatly copiced for firewood etc.

8 Mar, 2012

 

It worked well on the self sown Birch which we have in the garden. All I did was remove the growing point and left a stump of about 12 inches high. Not as pretty as the white barked varieties but it looks good enough where it is.

8 Mar, 2012

 

I reckon the VERY FIRST thing you should do is take them out of the bucket of water. They can have a dip for 6-8 hours if you can't plant them immediately, but most tree roots will rot off if you leave them in there for long.
See http://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Planting-Bare-Root-Trees
For planting advice and care of bare root trees if you can't plant them immediately - if the ground is frozen, for instance.
http://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/Cold-Freezing-Weather

8 Mar, 2012

How do I say thanks?

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