Tree Dreaming: Another Columnar Birch: Parkland Pillar Birch

Yesterday, I featured two pine trees in my latests [tree dreaming] series post: a cool pine with 'candles' on the tips and a super narrow Umbrella pine that has Japanese influence.  Today, is another post about a tree that I'm dreaming about:  a columnar birch tree called the Parkland Pillar Birch.

I've shared a few posts about birch trees on the blog over the years.

Just in mid-January, I posted a tree-dreaming post about two 'white' trees:  the Dakota Pinnacle Birch and the Swedish Aspen.  Both of them feature white-ish bark and have a narrow, columnar growth habit.

If you go look at that post, you'll see that those two trees (Dakota Pinnacle and Swedish Aspen) are kinda similar.  This, Parkland Pillar Birch is very (to my eye) similar to those other two. 

From this product listing, we find out that the Parkland Pillar Birch can go all the way down to Zone 3 - which is nice.   About the Parkland Pillar Birch from FirstEditionPlants.com:

Parkland Pillar is a beautiful birch with a narrow, upright, dense habit. It boasts white bark and dense, dark green foliage that turns golden in late fall. This fast growing variety is suitable for gardens, screens or boulevards. Tolerant of heat, drought, and alkaline soils, Parkland Pillar is an excellent choice for urban landscapes. Its narrow form makes it perfect as an accent tree or it can be planted in multiples to form a privacy screen.

Teri Knight from GardenBite has a great post all about this columnar Asian birch entitled: "Nothing like a living fence – Parkland Pillar birch".  From her post, we get this photo of the tree in Fall:

This is not my photo.  Source via GardenBite.com here.

And from that same post on GardenBite, we get a little bit more about the utility of this particular tree as a screening device:

‘Parkland Pillar’ is a fast growing Japanese variety of birch that boasts white bark and dense, dark green foliage that turns golden in late fall. It’s suitable for gardens, screens or boulevards. Tolerant of heat, drought, and alkaline soils, Parkland Pillar is an excellent choice for urban landscapes. Its narrow form makes it perfect as an accent tree or it can be planted in multiples to form a privacy screen.

Feels a lot like the use case we've had where we planted our row of eight Columnar Frans Fontaine European Hornbeams in our backyard.

I'll be keeping an eye out for one of these columnar birches at The Growing Place or the Nursery on 53, but (as of now), I'm not seeing this tree being listed in the usual online tree outlets, but at some of the lesser known (to me) online nurseries like this one at Sooner Plant farm where they're listing a 5 gallon version for $140.00.  Based on some quick research, typical #5 trees are between 3-5 feet tall and under 1" caliper in trunk size.  I've planted plenty of those 5# trees, but they're from Home Depot and Menards and are normally WAY less than $140.

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As I post more of these 'tree dreaming posts' this Winter,  I've decided to do a property inventory of my columnar tree dreams.  These are trees that if I come across, I'd be hard-pressed to not add to our yard:

•  The Amanogawa Japanese Flowering Cherry tree - a columnar variety that's hardy to Zone 5b. 
• This post that references a compilation from Pretty Purple Door that includes the columnar Goldspire Ginko. 
• A columnar Norway Spruce - an evergreen that can (I think) be sourced locally (not online).
• A Slender Hinoki Cypress (technically a shrub) that is home in a Japanese garden.
• A couple of 'white' columnar trees:  Dakota Pinnacle Birch and Swedish Aspen.
• Now this Columnar Eastern White Pine - that I hope would be disease resistant.  
• In 2018, I posted about these Sky Pencil Holly narrow shrubs.  
• We have a small Weeping White Spruce that I planted in 2019 in our backyard.  
• Late January 2020:  Van Den Aker Narrow Alaskan Weeping Cedar (and Green Arrow Weeping Cedar)
• A (non-columnar) Austrian Pine that has these crazy 'candles' or pipe cleaners on the tips.
• This super narrow 'Joe Kozey' Narrow Japanese Umbrella Pine can handle heavy snow loads. 
• Another columnar Birch tree - The Parkland Pillar Birch can be used as a screen or privacy hedge.