European birch

Explaining pictures and captions at the end of the article.

The white flaky bark on a European birch, Betula pendula, is very attractive and probably why many bonsai creators fall in love with it.

Branches are fine and new growth is very thin and soft at the ends.

This Birch has a natural shari running down the trunk. Most likely a larger branch ripped off when it was growing in nature for years. The deadwood I left as it was with its beautiful brown color and deep natural texture. Only nature and time can develop.

The deadwood is very hard and has withstood rotting for a long time untreated where it was growing. But I have treated it with a wood hardener that doesn’t color the wood, to keep it natural and to be sure it will not break down further. I am impressed that it was able to stay preserved in nature for such a long time in a humid environment. Witnesses that the tree is old being when it is able to produce hardwood that stands the test of time.

When collected a long top branch was removed so it now measures around 85 cm in height. 

The Birch has a reputation for losing some branches in between without reason, and this happens in almost all stages of age. Although all branches are intact and in good health every season has its small flaws and losses.

It seems like strong areas overtake and let off smaller unnecessary branches to power up the areas that reach the light and strengthens overall health. The tree kind of cuts off the water supply for specific branches letting them dry out, as are they sacrificed to let the water stream go to more important branches.

The only successful way to avoid this habit is to let the base of the soil and roots have access to water all the time, avoiding any drought at any time. Place the pot (in this case a natural slap) on a tray with gravel and fill it with water so the base has contact allowing roots to reach the water all the time in the summer growing season.

When designing a Birch we have to take this into account and live with this habit, knowing we loose a few branches in between if not successfully providing it with a high amount of water.

This branch loss make it more difficult to use the Birch for smallsized trees, because there it will be more dramatic for the design when branches are lost. On a large bonsai it is possible to cover it up by letting some of the many other branches take over. Successfully growing the birch for shohin will demand that extra caretaking of a good water supply.

The Birch need a free draining soil, yet has to be watered well and avoid drying out between waterings., Only fertilize moderately because in nature the Birch grows on a poor soil often. Therefore I only add half the dose of fertilizers for Birch compared with like Japense maples and most other deciduous trees. 

The European birch, also known as silver birch, is native to Europe and parts of Asia, in colder areas. Around where I live it is the first tree that will naturally settle if a piece of land is cleared and left untouched.  

The twigs on the birch are slender with leaves roughly triangular in shape, turning beautifully  yellow and brown in autumn before they fall if cold enough. Else they have a tendency to fade and being dull if not exposed to cold weather soon enough.

If leaves are exposed to too much sun and wind during mid summer, they are easily damaged and get brown dried out edges. It is natural though that the birch during summer drops some leaves to minimice the need of water for transpiration and cooling down during hot periods. 

The way I control growth is by leaving out any fertilizers until the first flush of growth in spring has developed and matured. Because adding fertilizers early will expand the lenght of each branch almost uncontrolled and the distance between the internodes (the distance between leaf pairs) will be far too long.

Newer defoliate any leaves on Birch because it will weaken the branch too much. The leaves are small enough after some training as bonsai anyway, and they will only loose vigour if leaves are removed. To let light in to the interior areas covered by branches and leaves in order to promoto backbudding, trimming branches is better.

In mid summer I also prune back and adjust growth ruining the shape, deliberately left to grow long in spring. I do leave the new growth to grow in spring because I have experienced this seem to help keeping more branches healthy without a lot of dieback. Like Hornbeam and Beech it seems to produce the growth hormones and energy at the tips and sending these back to the inner aeras and roots when matured early to mid summer. Scientifically unproved but in practise it seems to work well this way. 

In autumn, when leaves drop, is the only time I wire. If wired just before the growing season the wire ieasily bites into the branches when they swell fast in spring when growth is strong.

The tree here have been trained for a bit more than six years since collecting it in nature nearby my home. It has respond well so far, and set a lot of healthuý growth. After these six years of regular wiring, I have changed the strategy after the main bonsai have settled the basic shape.

Now I will primarily form the future of the tree by cutting.

This cutting and no wire strategy will develo a more natural style of the tertiary branches.

The strategy of only ussing scissors to form most of the tree from now on, will form a natural forking and movement of branches. Wiring branches in different direction ongoing with soft bendings will not develop a natural expression compared with directional controlled pruning.

The method is to select the bud where you want the new growth to go and cut just in front of that bud. The new growth will then grow in the direction this bud points.

All growth growing inwards and crossing a nearby branch is removed , as well as bud/branches point directly upwards, or downwards.

This way I slowly will develop a refined ramification in the years to come.

When pruning, I also take care of keeping branches short and longer in shifting distances to keep a natural uneven pattern. 

The tree is planted on one of my own created slaps made especially for this Birch. The planting on the ground is sínspired by the Scandinavian nature, where grasses, ferns and small plants grows like this near lakes and mountains in the lower land.

These also have to grow and mature, being controlled and pruned to look natural.

A small peace of nature reflecting the nature we find here expressing a pleasing peaceful  atmosphere.