Himalayan Birch Trees

Himalayan Birch Trees

Himalayan birch, Betula utilis Jacquemontii, is an elegant, medium-sized tree with beautiful white bark. Unlike a native birch tree, the almost pure white bark stays smooth and bright when it's mature.
In spring, the tree makes long catkins that provide early season pollen for bees. The autumn leaf colour is a pale, warm yellow that contrasts nicely with the white bark.

They can reach a height of about 15-20 metres, with a very upright habit.

We also grow the even more ornamental Snow Queen.
Browse our varieties of birch tree or our full range of ornamental trees.

Delivery season: Birches are delivered bareroot during late autumn and winter, approximately November-March inclusive.
Choosing a size: Small trees are cheaper, easier to handle and more forgiving of less than ideal aftercare, so they're best for a big planting project. If instant impact is your priority, or if you are only buying a few plants for use in a place where it's convenient to water them well in their first year, then you may as well use bigger ones. All our bareroot trees are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Features

• Height: To 20m, very upright
• Soil: Any except from chalk. Best in close to full sun.
• Use: Screening, winter interest
• Colour: Pale yellow Autumn leaves
• Unique, elegant white bark
• Bareroot delivery only: November-March

Growing Himalayan Birch

It'll grow on most soils apart from shallow chalk, and it's well suited to urban sites. It'll tolerate light shade, but full sun is best.

Apart from removing the usual dead, damaged or crossing branches, it's best not to prune birches.

History & Trivia

Himalayan, or Kashmir, birch's native range is centred on Nepal and the first trees were introduced to Britain in the 1880's. They are named for the French naturalist Victor Jacquemont (1801-1832), a guest of the Sikh Maharajah Ranjit Singh (1780-1839), who explored the Kashmir region in 1831, and died of cholera on the way back to Mumbai.

It has been extensively cultivated and the trees that you buy from our nursery are grafted, not grown from seed, to ensure that there is no natural variation between trees.

Birch is a pioneer species: it is fast-growing, relatively short-lived, and thrives on sunny, poorly fertile sites.

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.