White Poplar Trees (Populus alba)

Populus alba Trees

The White Poplar tree, is the only poplar we grow that will do well on chalky soil. Its great feature is its two-tone leaves, which are glossy green on top and felted with fuzzy white "hairs" on the underside. When the wind is rippling through them, they remind one of a shoal of fish, catching the sun and going dark as they turn one way and the next. The mostly white bark is easy to identify, with its darker diamond shaped markings, although the old trees lose the white layer and become deeply ridged, provding shelter for the eggs of various insects. This is not a tree for a small garden! It may only be medium sized, but its roots are real bullies and will make life hard for small plants near them. They will also attack old drains and foundations (new build concrete is in no danger) and we advise a safe planting distance of 20 metres if you think yours might be at risk. It is a fantastic shelterbelt tree. White Poplar trees can reach a height of about 20 metres.

Standard trees are the largest size that we deliver; you can also buy younger White Poplar saplings here.
Browse all of our other varieties of Poplar trees for sale.

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.

History & uses of Populus alba:
Populus alba has been growing wild across Britain for centuries, though its true native range is from Europe (South of about Poland) to Central Asia.