Birch - How to start? (Or alternatives)

[ForeverRaynning]

On the motorway the other day, I spent a lot of time looking out the window at the trees - don’t worry, I wasn’t driving! Its odd how you start bonsai and suddenly trees become a lot more interesting and how you notice how branches on older trees bend down vs younger trees where they point more upwards.

Anyway, I then spotted a tree with really small looking leaves in clusters, and then more of the same. So I looked at the bark and realised they must be birch trees. I found them very beautiful.

Now, having done some preliminary searching, it sounds like birch can be a real pain to bonsai as they like to dieback and drop branches and all sorts… but if I was to give it a go, what would be the best way to start? In the UK our natives are silver birch and downy birch, but tree places also sell Himalayan birch and other various types, sub species or varieties, whatever the term may be. However standards seem very expensive for something I’d have to chop down and lose the vast majority of just for the sake of a thick trunk.

That then raises the question, since birch are skinny trees, what would be the thickness:height ratio? Would I even need to buy a standard if aiming for a smaller tree, not entirely sure what size I’d want just yet.

And lastly, since birch are difficult and I am a novice to all this, are there any alternatives? I like the pale bark of birch and the leaf shapes/clusters, are there any other species that are maybe easier to keep or train that have similar traits? I think the different bark colour is especially lovely.

 

[AshleyMammal]

I'm a big advocate for zelkova serrata (japanese grey bark elm), and actually, whilst on the subject of elms: english elm, and wych elm too. And then don't forget european hornbeam.... anyways, i digress.....

The zelkova seems to be a reasonably priced tree from most bonsai places. Produces incredibly fine ramification, the leaves resemble birch and even has a birch-like trunk colour. They're a great species for most styles, perhaps best for broom and formal/informal upright. Because they're elms, they take a lot of beating, are vigorous and love the UK climate.

Occasionally they can be found in landscape nurseries - i got a big landscape one for £45 a few years ago that i'm working on.

For me, I personally wouldn't touch birch for the reasons you've mentioned, I've seen a couple of good birch bonsai but even 'the experts' seem to lose branches.

 

[mkg]

I've seen somewhere (sorry I forgot the source) that if pruning birch between mid-june and mid-july you limit the dieback. The issue mainly happens if pruning during dormency.
I can't speak about the size, but by planting them yourself you can test different shape and size.
And they are so cute as seedlings !

 

[harshadg]

Here’s my progression on River birch. In my limited experience, I have found this species to be very vigorous. During the growing season, you can push it hard and it will bounce right back. For example, cutting back to 2 leaves four weeks ago was followed by a strong push. Last week, I cut back once again to two leaves, and I can already see activation of dormant buds this week. I have not yet seen die back or deprioritization of branches when clipped during the growing season. I feed aggressively - probably not the wisest when one thinks of internode distance, but I figure the tree needs resources to make/activate new buds.

In my experience with this specimen, cutting back in fall led to extensive die back (1-2” down) over winter from the cut site. And it appears that it may extend even further. You can see a change in color of the bark when this happens. However, the tree seems to compartmentalize this well and the dieback extends to the live buds on all sides on the cut-back branch. This year, I do not plan major cut back over fall unless absolutely necessary.

Note that the strategy here has been to push growth back - closer and closer to the trunk, unlike for example in a maple where one might cut right back to the trunk and develop new branches from buds on the trunk. In my execution of this strategy, I found that it will happily backbud in the vicinity of the cut. It will also backbud on the trunk, but relatively fewer buds occur on the main trunk, when there is more “new” wood.

Wound healing is still an unknown (for me). Simply patching it with cut paste doesn’t seem to work as well as it does in other species. Still trying to figure out if this statement is true.

Anyway, someone’s gotta give these species a try - how else will we figure out if these are good material?