Silver birch
By Debbiepugh
Cambridgeshire,
United Kingdom 
I would really like to have a tree with white bark in my garden, but all the ones I see are very very tall. Does anyone know of a tree that doesn't get too big but has lovely shiny white bark?
4 Mar, 2009
Answers
We've put in four multi-stemmed birch: betula Jacquemontii. You can buy them with two, three or four stems. We have pruned off some of the small side branches and intend to keep the tree height controlled. Sometimes, people plant three small birch saplings in the same hole. By having multi stems you get a lot of impact. We have some photos on our page.
4 Mar, 2009
We've put in four multi-stemmed birch: betula Jacquemontii. You can buy them with two, three or four stems. We have pruned off some of the small side branches and intend to keep the tree height controlled. Sometimes, people plant three small birch saplings in the same hole. By having multi stems you get a lot of impact. We have some photos on our page.
4 Mar, 2009
You can keep a Birch Tree pruned until the bark silvers, they have to be a certain age (it varies) before it shows silver. I will take a pictrure of one of mine and post it in the next day or two.
4 Mar, 2009
Its always hilarious to be entirely and completely wrong :)
4 Mar, 2009
Tigerlilly182 - your suggestion might be better! Birch are shallow rooting so it depends how large the garden is.
5 Mar, 2009
Debbie, I am sending you a PM about a specialist Nursery.
6 Mar, 2009
Previous question
Unfortunately no, whats the maximum height your looking for and have you thought about going for lovely silver leaves instead?
4 Mar, 2009