We wanted some opinions as to which would be better for a specimen
planting.

We are in Z6a the plant will be in full sun and in moist clay soil.
We would like to use one of these as a specimen plant for 4-season
interest. It will be planted about 20 feet from the house.

Which one would be best for this type of planting? Also we would like
to uplight the tree for night and winter interest.


Thanks,

Dave M

I would vote for Betula nigra 'Heritage' simply because of its much faster
growth rate. Both trees are beautiful and have true four season interest
but 'Heritage' will become a specimen much faster.

Just my opinion,
--beeky

dhmeiser wrote:

We wanted some opinions as to which would be better for a specimen
planting.

We are in Z6a the plant will be in full sun and in moist clay soil.
We would like to use one of these as a specimen plant for 4-season
interest. It will be planted about 20 feet from the house.

Which one would be best for this type of planting? Also we would like
to uplight the tree for night and winter interest.

Thanks,

Dave M

In article ,
(dhmeiser) wrote:

We wanted some opinions as to which would be better for a specimen
planting.

We are in Z6a the plant will be in full sun and in moist clay soil.
We would like to use one of these as a specimen plant for 4-season
interest. It will be planted about 20 feet from the house.

Which one would be best for this type of planting? Also we would like
to uplight the tree for night and winter interest.


Thanks,

Dave M

I'm assuming you mean griseum not griserum unless there's a maple I don't
know about (& there no doubt could be). Personally I'd choose very
carefully a paperbark maple -- carefully in order to have one from day one
that had excellent shape to its limbs. River birch bark goes through
interesting changes over a a great length of time, but is never as
dramatic as paperbark until it is quite old & big. The birch also has a
too-ordinary form, but the naked limbs of a paperbark in winter are
beautiful even not counting the exfoliating cinnamon-colored bark, it is
just more beautiful even in silhouette. The maple has the far better
autumn colors too, the birch has a blah autumn yellow by comparison.
Here's my paperbark in autumn:
http://www.paghat.com/autumnleaves8.html

The birch has very nice catkins but the paperbark maple has wonderful
seeds PLUS wonderful flowers. There's a picture of its flowers on this
page in praise of the paperbark:
http://www.paghat.com/paperbark.html
If you were going for one of the fancier sorts of birches (I love the
weeping white birches; I prefer ornately twisted beeches) then that might
out-compete the paperbark for looks, but not for hardiness since most
birches are increasingly delicate. But the hardier riverbirch cannot
compete with its own cousins for looks, especially not in the all-season
contests.

If I had an old, big, well-established river birch in my yard I'd be SO
happy, but I wouldn't care much for a specimen less than 20 feet tall even
that might be too slender to be stunning. Paperbarks make much more
excellent specimen trees on their own, & have mature form even at ten feet
(if you can install one at 12 to 15 feet with substantial trunk & limbs
already at full peel, you have something spectacular on Day One, but a
river birch the same size you still have to wait for it to mature, & its
overall form will never be outstanding even if eventually the main trunk
at least ages to wondrous). I think paperbarks are much more suited as
specimen trees if one has to hold the look of an area all by itself.

I also wouldn't bank only on river birch's fame for being more
heat-tolerant & wet-tolerant than other birches, as all things being
relative, it's still going to be delicate compared to the maple. River
birches grow on floodplains that are seasonally very dry, where they do
NOT experience year-round wetness; & on river banks they self-select high
on banks above waterlines, plus they grow in groups so that they shade
each others' rootcrowns even though their leafcrowns are in full sun, so
in a yard, sunning the roots in summer could be harmful, meaning they
can't stand by themselves in guaranteed health. A flat yard with clay soil
& standing alone as a specimen, the roots might well become overheated, &
the drainage too poor, though even at that it might seem to do very well
for about 20 years then just as the trunk is really well-aged & gorgeous,
it begins to die for having lived its whole life up to then in clay that
it never really liked. Poor draining clay isn't best for the maple either
but it's more adaptable & will develop a more extensively healthy
rootsystem to sustain it into old age.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/