Once a year Missouri, I think through the Department of Conservation or maybe Forestry, sells trees. I think a lot of states do it but you can get little sapling/seedling trees. They often come in bundles with a lot of trees! The guy we bought the house from told us that his mom had bought a bunch of river birch trees for about 99 cents each and a lot of those (over a dozen!) were planted here.
They’re 17 years old now and they drop lots of little sticks. We pick them up, throw them in the burn pit; then two or three days later, they need picking up again. They are pretty trees and they are disease resistant and drought and wet tolerant so I’m not complaining about them. I did find this on the internet:
I’ve been picking up the branches/twigs but since Vince has been here, I haven’t even thought about it. He went out today and picked up what was in the yard and he came in and sent this note to the guy we bought the house from.
“Confucius say: Man who buy 99 cent tree spend lifetime picking up twigs!”
I cracked up. That is so unlike Vince. I asked him how he thought of that and he said “I don’t know. I didn’t read it anywhere!” I said “I never thought you did!” Who else would come up with something like that? 🙂
QuilterBea says
It’s true – awful trees. Not even good for shade; I cut my “sucker” down.
Nelle Coursey says
That is so funny!
Carolyn says
Exactly why I still follow you!
Karen Sutton says
I love the look of river birch trees but Bob won’t even consider them – too messy. As it is he spends an inordinate amount of time picking up gumballs that fall in our yard from our neighbors tree. LOL
Judy Laquidara says
Oh, no. When it’s your own tree, you can chop it down but when it’s the neighbor’s tree .. not so much!
Sandra Lowell says
I have 3 Chinese Tallow Trees. They have brittle wood, shallow roots, and break branches off all year long. Sounds like river birch is a relative. Typically people plants trees like that because they grow quickly. Good luck!
Judy Laquidara says
Yes, everything that seems to grow quickly seems to be a nuisance tree.