IN THE GARDEN Silver lining
When it comes to trees for your garden, silver birch can take your breath away – it just needs a little careful grooming
Agood wash and brush-up is not something only reserved for gentlemen in those early 20th century films and novels where Brylcreem was de rigueur and a pair of whalebone hair brushes were applied to the backswept locks.
There are plants in the garden that benefit from a bit of grooming, too. I’m thinking particularly of birch trees.
Silver birches are great garden trees. Their root system is not excessive in its spread, neither is it greedy in the absorption of soil nutrients – and the leaf canopy is sufficiently light to create dappled rather than dense shade, which means other plants can grow happily around and about them.
In winter, the silver birch’s main attribute – the bright bark – is a real bonus in the garden and there are several different shades to choose from. Betula ermanii is peachy cream, Betula utilis ‘Jacquemontii’ is a fresh, chalky white, and there are many others in varying shades, all with attractive peeling bark.
The trouble is that at this time of year, especially thanks to the wet weather we’ve had over the last few weeks, the white bark can play host to a covering of green algae, which dulls its appearance and robs it of much of its elegance.
But there is a simple remedy for this – a good old-fashioned wash and brush-up.
Take yourself out into the garden with a bucket of warm water and a soft brush or cloth and wash down the trunks of your birch trees. You will find the green covering comes off easily. So will a few lumps of peeling bark, but they will reveal creamier or whiter bark
Wash down your birch tree trunks. The green algae comes off easily
underneath, which is even brighter than that on the surface. Now the disadvantage of this is that the water will no doubt find its way up your arm if you reach as high as you can to clean the trunk and the thicker lower branches that you can reach, but there is no gain without pain.
As a reward for your trouble you will find you have a brilliant-barked tree that suddenly leaps out from the gloom to cheer you up on a dull winter’s day.
And if you need to raise the height of the head of branches (known as the crown of the tree) so you and your mower can pass beneath more easily, now is the time to do so.
At any time between October and
February you are safe to cut branches from a birch tree, but leave the job until spring and you will find that the sap is rising and the cut surfaces will ‘bleed’.
This does the tree no good at all because it weakens and disfigures the trunk.
So do the job now. You’ll have a much brighter outlook to show for it.