"The River Birch: A Whole New Experience In Tree Growth" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Walking around the neighborhood, looking at all the beautiful shrubs, flowers and trees.  My new neighborhood at Woodcrest Villa is covered with so many beautiful flowers and trees just in bloom and with beautifully mowed lawns.  And...I'm not responsible for any of it.  It is so nice not to have to plant and keep a lawn in good shape as well as help take care of the shrubs, trees, and flowerbeds around our villa.   My wife has planted a few of her favorite flowers in the flowerbeds that surround our new home at Woodcrest.   There are a variety of trees that cover our entire neighborhood and make it look beautiful.  One of types of trees that my wife and I never had in any of our previous homes is the River Birch.  

The bark of the River Birch tree

It has a cinnamon-colored bark that curls and peels which is particularly noticeable in the winter.  This native of wet areas of the deep South grows very well in Lancaster County.  Woodcrest Villa uses it on campus as a landscape tree.  The couple of River Birch trees that we have on our property and nearby properties are so different than all the other types of trees on campus.  A few people whom I talked with about the trees don't really care for them, but I find them so different and interesting.  The tree is a native of wet areas and grows very well when planted in Lancaster County. One feature of the tree is the shimmering contrast when the leaves flutter in the wind, revealing a lower leaf surface of a different color than the upper surface.  The River Birch tree grows to a height of 60-80 feet and about 40 feet wide.  The trunk is about 2 feet in diameter, but can grow wider.  At times the trunk will split into two sections which is so different than most other trees.  It has the best fall foliage of all birches I am told, but haven't lived at Woodcrest long enough to see it for myself.  I'm anxious to see a full season of growing to see for myself how they grow and what they will look like as they grow throughout the year.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.