How to Grow Heritage River Birch Trees

Use Heritage as a landscaping tree if you live in U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zones 4 through 9. Zone 3's winter weather is a bit too cold for this cultivar, but it handles the warmer zones in which the vast majority of birch trees falter.

Choose medium to wet sites for your Heritage river birch. In the wild, river birches typically grow near waterways or in floodplains, where the soil is moist. Heritage is tolerant of periodic flooding, heavy wet clay sites and areas that can be underwater for long periods in the spring.

Locate a river birch in either a partly shady site or one that is always in the sunshine. In full sun, a young Heritage river birch is capable of growing as much as 30 inches per year in the warmer zones.

Keep your Heritage river birch out of soil with a pH higher than 6.5. When you plant this cultivar in soil of that nature, the tree is highly susceptible to developing iron chlorosis, a yellowing of the foliage. Heritage, as with other types of river birches, grows best in acidic soil.

Prune your Heritage river birch if necessary, but not during the spring months. Sap will flow through the tree at that time, making pruning it at that time harmful to the health of the Heritage cultivar. Heritage generates branches low down on the trunk, so you will need to prune it if you employ it as a street tree or in close proximity to vehicles or foot traffic, according to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.