sweet birch
Betula lenta
USDA zones3 to 8
SunHandles full sun to full shade
WaterHandles dry to moist soil
Size40 to 75 feet tall35 to 40 feet wide
- Growth rate
- Rapid
- Bloom season
- Spring, summer, autumn, winter
- Bloom color
- Green to pale yellow catkins
- Foliage color
- Green.
- Soil types
- Sand, loam, clay, chalk
- Soil pH
- Acid, alkaline, neutral
Garden uses
Attracts
Notes
Sweet birch (Betula lenta) is a tree for specimen planting, pollinator gardens, and low maintenance landscapes. It is hardy to USDA zone 3, or down to -40°F (-40°C). This plant likes full sun to full shade and dry to moist soil of most types. Crushed twigs and leaves smell like wintergreen, and the leaves turn golden-yellow in fall. Deer tend to browse other plants first. Do not prune until summer, when the sap has stopped flowing.
Pairs well with White oak, Western sword fern, Cheerfulness daffodil, and American cranberrybush.
Native range
Eastern North America.