General Info	Wildlife Value
Shade	Partial Shade
Area	Exposed Windy Areas, Frost Pockets, Scotland & The North
Soil	Good, Well Drained, Acidic, Poor/Dry, Wet
Type	Native, Screening
Ornamental	Autumn Colour

Betula pubescens

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	Buy 11 or more bareroot plants and save

SIZES	1-10	11-50	51-250	251-1000	1001+
60/80 cm Bareroot	Out of Stock £2.52	Out of Stock£2.02	Out of Stock£1.76	Out of Stock£1.63	Out of Stock£1.51
	Prices include VAT(where applicable)

See our plant size guide

OUT OF STOCK

£1.94

Birch, Downy needs...

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Tubular Guard for protection against rabbits and muntjac deer

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Stakes, Softwood for Tree Guards
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Rootgrow
For healthy plants & trees, if you only add one thing to the soil at planting time, use Rootgrow

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Betula pubescens: Downy / Common White Birch, Sapling Trees

The Downy, Hairy or Common White Birch is an upright native tree with pale grey mature bark. It grows in any soil apart from chalk and especially likes damp sites. It has good autumn colour and its leaves support several species of butterfly caterpillar.

This tree is very similar to Silver Birch. The most obvious difference is that the young twigs of White Birch have downy hairs on them and feel smooth to the touch. The tree's canopy is also more upright and narrow than silver birch.

Betula pubescens is very fast-growing and makes a good screening tree up to about 20 metres.
Browse all of our Birch tree varieties.

Features:

Only sold as young sapling trees
Native. Upright habit
Pale grey bark, warm yellow autumn colour
Loves damp sites, prefers acidic soil
Wind resistant, but not suitable for the coast
Not suitable for hedging
Bareroot delivery only: Nov-March
To 20 metres

Growing Downy Birch

It will grow on any soil that is not dry, but it really loves neutral to acidic conditions close to water, and it will probably struggle on shallow chalk, which tends to be pretty dry. It is very wind resistant, but not suitable for the coast.

Did You Know?

In the past, birchbark was very valuable because it is oily, waterproof and flexible when heated. It was used to make all sorts of items related to water, from boats and buckets to roofs and hats. Birch was associated with fertility, and bundles of birch twigs were preferred in Medieval times to flog criminals. You will find birch twigs in a properly traditional Swedish sauna to lightly whip your back with, which is supposed to enhance your detox. Birchwood isn't that commercially valuable these days; it is mostly used for paper pulp and disposable things like toothpicks and matches. It burns well, if a little quickly.

Standard trees are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level: their trunk's waist measurement. Unlike sapling trees and hedge plants, standards aren't measured by their height, which will vary quite a bit both between and within species.
So, a 6/8cm standard tree has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8cm and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10cm around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
On average, standard trees are 2-3.5 metres tall when they arrive, but we cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

Read our full terms and conditions here.

Delivery: Our standard delivery charges are:

Small box (orders containing only seedlings or rooted cuttings) = £7.20 (inc VAT) per order.
Standard box (bareroot plants up to 1.2metres) = £11.40 (inc VAT) per order.
Large box (pots up to and including 7.5 litres) = £15.00 (inc VAT) per order.
Trees & hedging (bareroot plants and trees over 1.2 metres in height) = £19.80 (inc VAT) per order.
Orders delivered to Scotland and the Isle of Wight may incur a surcharge (calculated during checkout). This is applicable to ALL orders to these locations.
Pallets (for all orders of root balls, and large orders, a pallet price will be automatically applied at checkout) = £75.00 (inc VAT) per order.
If, for reasons of seasonality an order needs to be split, then we will charge for each delivery. If the whole order was eligible for free P&P then the second of the split orders will be delivered free of charge.

*Surcharges to the Highlands and Islands still apply.

Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
We will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.

Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.

Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.

Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted hedging must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week in summer if there is no heavy rain.

Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot hedging plants to gardeners, farmers and town planners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying hedging plants online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.

Downy Birch Sapling Trees

Betula pubescens

MAIDEN BAREROOT

BUSH BAREROOT

Tree Guard, Ashridge

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Stakes, Softwood for Tree Guards

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Rootgrow

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