Betula Papyrifera

The Paper Birch tree, Betula papyrifera, is a vigorous, medium sized tree that will grow in most fertile soils, except chalk. It needs full sun. Mature trees have beautiful peeling bark and a neat, narrow canopy. Older trees develop attractive, peeling layers of bark.
Paper Birch trees can reach a height of about 20 metres.
Standard trees are the largest size that we deliver; you can also buy younger Paper Birch saplings here.

Browse our variety of birch tree or see our full range of ornamental trees.

How Standard Trees are Measured:
All the plants in the ornamental trees section are graded as standards, which means that they are measured by their girth in centimetres 1 metre above ground level (basically, their trunk's waist measurement). They aren't measured by their height, which will vary. So, a 6/8 standard has a trunk with a circumference of 6-8 centimetres and an 8/10 standard has a trunk 8-10 centimetres around. This measurement makes no difference to the tree's final height.
Standard trees are 2 - 3.5 metres tall (on average) when they arrive; they are the most mature trees that you can buy from us. We cannot tell you precisely how tall your trees will be before we deliver them.

General description of Paper Birch trees:
The gorgeous peeling bark effect begins to appear on wood that is over 5 years old; young bark is a ruddy brown colour. The mature bark is creamy-white on the outside with a faint orange hue on the inside.
Paper birch is vigorous and loves growing on wet sites. The autumn colour is a pleasing deep orange.
Like all members of the birch family, these are relatively short lived trees that don't live much past 80 years old.

History & uses of Betula papyrifera
The waterproof bark is still used by Native Americans to make traditional canoe hulls. In the past, it would have been used for many other things, such as roof slats, rain-proof capes and hats, buckets and other vessels. Thin strips of the peeling bark can be used to make crude sunglasses and its oil content makes it superb tinder for lighting a fire. The wood will burn well even when it is fresh, but it isn't ideal for regular home use because it produces lots of tar that clogs up the chimney.
It is a good tree to plant on loose soil and riverbanks to prevent erosion because it grows rapidly and has quite a matted root system.

Notes on planting Paper Birch trees:
Paper Birch will grow well in most averagely fertile soils. It needs full sun.
It isn't ideal for exposed locations, where it will be shaped by strong winds.
It will not grow well if the site is shady, chalky or poorly fertile.

Prepare your site before planting:
It is good to dig over the site where you plant a tree several months in advance. Kill the weeds first: for tough weeds like nettles, brambles and ground elder, you will usually need a glyphosate based weed-killer to get rid of them. When you dig the soil over, remove stones and other rubbish and mix in well rotted compost or manure down to the depth of about 2 spades.

Watch our video on how to plant a tree for full instructions.
Remember to water establishing trees during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Tree Planting accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Roundup weed killer.
You can buy a tree planting pack with a wooden stake & rubber tie to support the tree and a mulch mat with pegs to protect the soil around the base of your tree from weeds and drying out.
We suggest that you use mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of all newly planted large trees: if your soil quality is poor, we strongly recommend it.
You can also improve your soil with bonemeal organic fertiliser and Growmore.

Read our full terms and conditions here.

Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £6.50 + vat, which increases to £12.55 + vat if you add any pot-grown plants, standard trees or fruit trees to the order.
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.

*Surcharges to the Highlands and Islands still apply.

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 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.

Soil	Wet
Also Good	Autumn Colour

	NUMBER OF PLANTS
SIZES	1-2	3-9	10+
6/8 std Bareroot	Plenty of Stock£34.95	Plenty of Stock£31.20	Plenty of Stock£21.75
8/10 std Bareroot	Plenty of Stock£46.95	Plenty of Stock£39.95	Plenty of Stock£35.95

Paper Birch Trees

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Betula Papyrifera