Graham Rice highlights six varieties for small gardens
If you want a tree with year-round interest and ample underplanting opportunities then betula fits the bill, and Graham’s options have been chosen with small gardens in mind
CHOOSING a tree for a small garden is always a challenge. Getting it right is doubly important when you only have room for a single specimen, and it’s tempting to pack all your needs into a single variety. However there’s one factor that is sometimes overlooked: shade. Or, rather, the amount of shade.
As our summers become hotter and sunnier, a little shade in which to stretch out on a summer’s day can be very appealing; the problem is that shade restricts our planting options. And while crab apples, hawthorns and other small garden trees have a host of valuable features, the shade they cast is dense. Birches, however, combine elegant growth with a rather thin canopy of foliage that casts only light and dappled shade, making them suitable for underplanting with a wide variety of perennials and bulbs. Most reach 10-13ft/ 3-4m after 10 years (up to three times that eventually), but thoughtful pruning can keep the height down if necessary.
In spring there are catkins. The more colourful 2-6in (5-15cm) male catkins, in yellow, gold or honeyed tones, hang down from the bare twigs and dance in the breeze as they release their pollen. The smaller, duller female catkins stand up on the same twigs.
In some seasons – and in some varieties – the catkins overlap with the unfurling of fresh green foliage that, even as it matures into summer, has a delicacy that is always attractive. Some varieties have prettily dissected leaves; a rare few are strongly purple tinted. Then, in the autumn, the best varieties
offer leaf colour in the buttercup to deep gold part of the spectrum. Sometimes the whole tree turns to gold in the space of just a day or two.
When the leaves fall, it’s the opposite of when a horse chestnut or sycamore loses its foliage: fallen birch leaves do not settle into a wet mass of smothering sogginess; they rot away fast, enabling the spotlight to turn to the bark.
Our two native birch species have bark that is white-ish or pale grey –
Betula pendula is sometimes known as ‘the lady of the woods’ for its white bark and general elegance. But in certain Asian species the bark is brilliant white or it has pink or reddish colouring, sometimes peeling attractively.
The final attribute that makes birches ideal trees for smaller gardens is their adaptability. If their roots come across some unexpected below-the-surface surprise left by builders, they will cope. And once they’re established, they will put up with just about anything. How useful is that?