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Miniature birch trees


7 Dwarf Birch Trees That Are Perfect For Landscaping

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Birches are known for their beautiful silvery bark and leaves that turn honey-yellow in the fall. With their generally upright nature, they are a great tree choice for gardeners that might have a lack of space for a larger spreading tree. Four-season beauty makes them a stand-out in the garden because whether they are showing off their fall foliage, lustrous summer green, or bare and elegant in the winter, birch is a beautiful tree.

We've put together a list of some of the varieties that work well in smaller gardens. Some of these do grow to be medium-sized trees, but others are suitable for containers or as living hedges. All of them enjoy sunlight and moderately moist soils. Too much shade, and they won't thrive. If your soil is dry, you should consider a soaker hose or some type of irrigation to keep their roots damp. The great thing about birches is they require very minimal pruning, making them an easy tree to care for.

So here we go, seven varieties of beautiful birch trees to make your garden glow.

1. Snow Queen Birch

The Snow Queen Birch, or Betula utilis, is a beautiful tree for the garden. Unlike other birches, even the young trees have the snowy white bark that adult birches are known for. It's a fast-growing medium-sized tree that will provide much beauty in your garden. Besides its wonderful bark, it is quite showy in the fall with leaves that turn hues of gold. This tree grows well in full sun or partial shade and well-drained soil. Its upright branches make it great for a smaller garden where there's no room for a spreading tree.

2. Fastigiata Birch

The Fastigiata (Upright Birch) or Betula Pendula tree is a unique, upright birch tree with the classic silvery bark of the birch tree. Its branches intertwine with each other and grow inward, which creates the tree's upright appearance. This is a great choice where you might need a vertical accent in the garden. These trees look great planted as a border but will lose their leaves in the winter. The skeletal branches only add to the beauty in that season. These trees prefer slightly acidic soil but will tolerate most soil types.

3. Trinity College Birch

The Trinity College Birch or Betula Jacquemontii is another quiet and graceful white-barked birch tree. This variety will grow to about 2o feet after a time of approximately ten years. Its upright branches are wonderful for an area that can't handle a spreading tree canopy. These do best in full sun and tolerate most soils.  One of the coolest things about this varietal is that it was cultivated from a tree at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.

4. Magical Globe Birch

The Magical Globe Birch is the dwarf form of Betula Pendula, known as Betula Magical Globe. This attractive tree has a lovely ball-shaped top with a silvery-white trunk. Use them in large containers or plant them as a unique border along a drive or other pathway. These trees maintain their rounded lollipop form with very little pruning and can even be grown in large containers. They like moist, well-drained soil and common type of garden soil. They grow in US zones 3-6.

5. Grayswood Ghost Birch

The Grayswood Ghost Birch tree or Betula utilis var. jacquemontii "Grayswood Ghost" is one of the more beautiful of the birch trees. This lovely specimen features milky-white bark, which is a gorgeous contrast to its deep green leaves. In the fall, the leaves turn to a rich golden cream color before falling off and leaving a stark white skeleton of tree branches against your winter landscape. It loves full sun and medium to wet, well-drained soils. It's a low maintenance tree that requires very little pruning. It can grow up to about 30 feet in height.

6. Cesky Gold Dwarf Birch Tree

Less of a tree and more of a shrub, the Cesky Gold Dwarf Birch Tree or Cesky Gold® Betula x plettkei 'Golden Treasure' is a welcome addition to many gardens. New leaves in the spring bring welcome color to the garden in hues of gold, yellow, and red. As the spring turns to summer, the leaves turn a rich chartreuse green. This shrub works in US zones 2-7 and is equally at home in a container as it is in a border or low hedge. It's both deer-resistant and pollution-tolerant, so it is a great plant for rural or urban settings. It's readily available at many garden stores.

7. Little King Birch Tree

The Little King or Betula nigra is a fast-growing tree that forms a multi-stemmed tree with a rounded canopy. One of the most elegant things about this tree is its unique peeling bark. Strings of white peel away to reveal a creamy salmon color. Though it greatly prefers wet soils, it can tolerate drier soils. It does well planted along stream beds and ponds. It's also a lovely addition to a cottage-type garden. It's low maintenance and requires very little pruning.

Whether you choose just one variety or all seven of these lovely birches, you can be assured they'll add elegance and beauty to your garden for every season and are the perfect accent piece when you have limited room for large trees.

If you enjoyed this post, please check out these other posts about trees you may enjoy on GardenTabs.com below:

9 Beautiful Weeping Evergreen Trees for Landscaping

10 Trees With White Flowers In Springtime

11 Common Species of Birch Trees

Identified by their unique bark, birch trees look lovely in the landscape.

By

Vanessa Richins Myers

Vanessa Richins Myers

Vanessa Richins Myers is a seasoned horticulturist, writer, and educator with over 10 years of training and experience as a professional horticulturist and gardener. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in horticulture, with an emphasis in landscape design and urban horticulture. She volunteers as a community garden specialist.

Learn more about The Spruce's Editorial Process

Updated on 07/29/22

Reviewed by

Andrew Hughes

Reviewed by Andrew Hughes

Andrew Hughes is a certified arborist and member of the International Society of Arborists specializing in tree heal care. He founded and runs Urban Loggers, LLC, a company offering residential tree services in the Midwest and Connecticut.

Learn more about The Spruce's Review Board

The Spruce / Letícia Almeida

Birch trees belong to the genus Betula and are classified as part of the Betulaceae family of plants. They are typically small to medium-sized trees and shrubs found in temperate zones across the Northern Hemisphere. Some varieties grow in shrubby clusters. Others are trees that clump with multiple trunks, and still more grow as classic single-trunk trees. Ask anyone what's special about a birch tree and its beautiful bark immediately comes to mind. Birches are a common choice in landscaping, but they are relatively short-lived trees when compared to other hardwoods, and many become damaged by insects and diseases.

Tip

Most birches are characterized by varicolored or white bark with papery plates, distinctive horizontal markings, and peeling layers; the appearance of the bark often is the feature that gives the species its common name.

Click Play to Learn About Common Species of Birch Trees

Most birch trees grow best in moist soil and they love full sun. However, the roots might head for your plumbing pipes if a large tree is planted too close to your house. Do not let this deter you though; these are magnificent trees that are not hard to grow and should be a choice for your landscape. Birches are fast-growing trees that can quickly provide benefits to your yard.

Insect pests are most likely to strike a birch tree in areas where it is wounded or diseased. By keeping your trees well pruned and free of damaged branches, you can greatly reduce the likelihood of infestation by bronze birch borer or other insects.

Here are 11 common types of birch trees to consider for your landscape and areas where they are typically grown in the United States and around the world.

The various species of birch trees in the Betula genus include at least these 11 that are important landscape trees. Birch trees offer interesting bark color and texture and attractive foliage, but they are relatively short-lived and they are prone to suffer from diseases and insects, especially the bronze birch borer. But birches still make excellent, fast-growing landscape specimens, provided you have realistic expectations.

6 Types of Birch Trees with Gorgeous Fall Foliage

Article Sources

The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

  1. Bog Birch. The Morton Arboretum.

  2. The Bronze Birch Borer and Its Management. University of Minnesota Extension Service.

Dwarf birch: a journey from the tundra to the garden

In the vast expanses of the tundra, in the mountains at an altitude of over 500 m, as well as in sphagnum bogs in the taiga zone, this unusual tree grows - a dwarf birch. She is not at all like our white-trunked beauty - neither in height, nor in the color of the bark, nor in the shape of the leaves. And if you don’t know, then you won’t guess that this clumsy shrub, spread over the ground, is also a birch.

Photo: 7dach.ru7dach.ru

Dwarf birch in autumn against the background of reindeer moss

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In its habitats, it forms impenetrable thickets together with another baby - dwarf willow. I have met both of them high up in the mountains. Thickets of dwarf yernik, namely, this is the name the birch got from the Nenets word “yora” (shrub), are really impassable. Numerous gnarled branches are intertwined so densely and tightly that it is simply impossible to get through them.

Thickets of dwarf birch in Iceland. Photo from the site herbologymanchester.wordpress.com The tree is fully adapted to the harsh conditions of the areas in which it lives, and these are the northern expanses of Siberia and Canada (Arctic belt), Kamchatka and Chukotka. In other regions, it can be seen in the mountains, for example, in Altai, where this plant climbs to a height of up to 2000 m. A miniature birch also grows in the Alps and mountains of Scotland.

Botanical description

Dwarf birch (Betula nana) belongs to the genus Betula of the Birch family. It is a bush with a height of 20 to 80, rarely up to 120 cm. Numerous strongly branching shoots extend from the inclined stem, which grow not up, but to the sides, so that the crown has an open shape. In winter, snow reliably covers a low plant from severe frosts and northern snowstorms.

Dwarf birches in the tundra

Young twigs like velvety, slightly pubescent, later becoming glabrous with rough grey-brown bark. They do not have a characteristic "birch" color. The leaves are small (no more than 15 mm), green, rounded, with teeth along the edges, arranged alternately. The leaf blade is smooth and shiny above, and light matte and slightly fluffy below. The leaves sit on short petioles. With the onset of autumn, the foliage at first turns very bright - in red and orange colors, decorating the slopes of the mountains or the vast expanses of the tundra, and then falls off.

Bush of dwarf birch in autumn dress Dwarf birch also forms catkins - small, oval in shape, rather bright yellow-green color. Flowering occurs in May before the leaves bloom, and seeds ripen in June.

Ripening catkins of dwarf birch. Photo from commons.wikimedia.org

The roots of dwarf birches do not go deep, but spread to the sides, looking for a place for themselves among the stones and permafrost. The tree grows slowly. Breeders have bred the variety 'Golden Treasure' - a miniature plant no more than 80 cm high, the crown of which grows up to 1.5 m wide. Numerous shoots of rich brown color bear small round leaves of a delicate golden color, in autumn their color becomes more saturated.

Dwarf birch variety 'Golden Treasure'. Photo from leendersplants.nl

The variety is not only extremely winter-hardy, but can also grow in very wet and flooded areas of the garden, and is able to tolerate short-term drought in summer.

Cultivation

First you need to ask yourself how to get a dwarf birch. You can bring from a trip to the mountains, they are also sold in garden centers, and this plant is also grown from seeds.

If the seedlings of dwarf birch have been received, we proceed to prepare the site for planting. It makes no sense to dig deep holes - the roots of this plant are small, but it is necessary to add peat, sand, humus and a little gravel to ordinary garden soil.

Branch of dwarf birch against the background of stone and lichens. Photo by the author

The roots of the plant are placed in the hole, spreading to the sides, sprinkled with soil and watered abundantly. Dwarf birch loves moisture, and after planting it must be well watered, especially at first. In the future, this plant will not need special attention from the gardener. In dry summers, it requires watering and spraying. It is advisable to feed it twice a season: in spring with nitroammophos, and in summer with any complex fertilizer.

It is not recommended to loosen the soil under the bushes so as not to damage the roots. It will be very good to mulch the trunk circle with any material - sawdust, peat, needles, tree bark or even rubble - this will protect the plant from heat and rapid evaporation of moisture from the soil. It is not necessary to cover this plant for the winter.

Reproduction

Under the conditions of the middle zone, the seeds of the dwarf birch have time to ripen. For reproduction, they are sown immediately after harvest or in late autumn under the snow.

Dwarf birch seedling. Photo from agronomu.com Unlike ordinary birch, dwarf birch reproduces well by cuttings. Cut branches are placed in water, where they give excellent roots. Then the cuttings are planted in a school or immediately in a permanent place.

Dwarf birch in garden design

Such a peculiar plant with a very specific natural habitat, it would seem, is not quite suitable for our ordinary gardens. But this is only at first glance.

Dwarf birch, blueberry and lichen. Photo from the site pozhvanov.com Dwarf trees will really appeal to lovers of exotic landscapes, arranging mountain slopes and alpine slides, or those who want to recreate an island of Arctic nature in the garden. Such miniature birches will be good in a rocky Japanese garden or next to heathers.

If you plant these plants near a pond next to beautiful stones and add other alpine plants (gentian, saxifrage, bergenia), you will get great compositions. In a low-lying flooded area of ​​the garden, you can create a piece of tundra with cranberry bushes, low ferns and intricately curved shoots of a baby birch creeping along emerald mosses.

Dwarf birch on the shore of a natural reservoir. Photo by the author Dwarf birches are also suitable for creating hedges. They lend themselves perfectly to a haircut, and the dense weaves of their shoots create a dense green fence. By planting such a birch in a shallow ceramic pot, you can create an amazing bonsai from it. As you can see, with a certain amount of imagination, the use of this exotic plant in the garden is very extensive and varied.

Dwarf birch variety 'Golden Treasure' in the garden. Photo from provenwinners.com

Dear readers, share in the comments if you have ever met dwarf birch in nature, and if it grows in your garden, write how you take care of it. What other unusual plants do you grow in your area?

Masha and Birch. Tales of Grandfather of the Month.

After a long, hot day, as expected, night fell, and a moon shone in the dark blue sky.
If you look through a magic telescope, you will see that the moon is an ancient old man in a pointed cap, with a goatee, and the stars are his grandchildren.
These inquisitive fidgets surrounded grandfather, and let's beg: “Tell a story! Tell me a story!"
Grandfather Month stroked his gray beard, squinted his eyes thoughtfully and began:
“I remember a story that my friend Birch shared with me.
She grew up, and is still growing, near an elderly three-story house with elongated windows, a gray sloping roof and high ceilings in apartments.
A little girl lived in this house, her name was Mashenka. Like all females, Masha loved to show off ... not so much, but still she liked to be beautiful.
Masha was almost 6 years old, and she dreamed that her ears would be pierced and stud earrings with some bright stone would be bought. After all, Svetka's girlfriend had long been flaunting in dazzling carnations, with iridescent blue pebbles, although she was only a few months older than Masha.
Just don't think that the carnations in the ears are the same carnations that support pictures on the walls or fasten any wooden objects. Of course not! Simply, apparently, people did not find another name.
So this long-awaited day has come: parents took Masha to some office, where an aunt in a white coat made tiny holes in her earlobes with a special device. For some reason, a person calls this device a pistol. Of course, he does not shoot bullets, but people have a lot of oddities, for example, naming things by other names.
After the procedure, Masha walked downright happy, and her joyful face shone brighter than the turquoise stones in her ears.
And it was so wonderful outside! The weather was truly spring: the gentle sun was warming, a warm breeze carried intoxicating spring smells in the air.
The girl's parents stopped by the house and enjoyed the beautiful weather.
The little girl did not want to sit on the bench next to her parents at all. She wandered around the yard and carefully examined everything around.
When the girl approached the porch of her entrance, she noticed a magnificent birch growing nearby with young emerald leaves and golden catkins.
- Daddy, Mommy, what is it that has grown on a birch? the girl said with curiosity.
- Where, daughter? Mom asked.
- There, next to the green leaves, some small tails appeared!
- These are not ponytails, - dad smiled, - these are birch catkins.
Of course, every spring the birch stringed its magnificent ornaments, but the girl noticed them for the first time.
- How are these earrings?! What, just like mine? Mashenka was surprised.
- Well, not quite like yours. You have carnations, but the birch has others, - my mother explained.
- What does others mean? If they're not carnations, then who are?
- Mashenka, if you ask about any subject - not about a person or an animal - it is correct to say "what." And birch earrings are usually called that - earrings, - dad explained.
- Why is it, my earrings are studs, and birch earrings are ordinary earrings?
- If you want, let's think of a name for them, - Mom suggested.
- And what?
- For example... pendants.
- Well, yes, mommy, it seems to fit. They hang - let there be pendants, - the inquisitive girl calmed down, but not for long. - And why do I have only two carnations, and the birch, how many pendants?
- So conceived by mother nature, it is she who decorates the birch, - answered dad.
- I see... - the girl said thoughtfully and continued:
- Daddy, I'd really like to take a few pendants home with me. Let me take a drop!
Dad got up from the bench, took his daughter in his arms and brought him to the twigs. Mashenka stretched out her small, plump hands and tore off several earrings.
At home, she looked at them for a long time. And even in the quiet hour established by all the rules, she continued to suffer from a lot of questions that really attacked her.
Mom and dad went to work. And Masha decided to break her routine and went to her grandmother in the living room.
An old woman was sitting in a chair wearing huge glasses with thick lenses. Her head was encircled by an elastic band, which was attached to the plastic legs of the frame. This simple mechanism kept the heavy glasses on the grandmother's nose. In her hands, the knitting needles flickered incredibly quickly - they were in a hurry to knit a sweater for Mashenka.
A woolly crimson ball traveled across the floor, and the cat Matilda watched him attentively, but no longer hunted, as she used to, because she was at a respectable cat's age.
- Grandmother, grandmother, I have all sorts of questions that just don't want to leave! They prevent me from sleeping.
- Masha, if you don't rest for lunch, your parents will scold you and me, - and the grandmother looked at her granddaughter over her glasses.
- I have some questions! And if I raise everything, then I will definitely fall asleep right there!
- Promise?
- Honest Kindergarten! the girl exclaimed solemnly.
Grandmother put her knitting on the coffee table, took off her glasses and prepared to listen attentively to her granddaughter.
- Grandmother, why does the birch have visible-invisible pendants? Why does she need them? Does she like to dress up too? If she has so many earrings, then she must be a huge fashionista?!
- Earrings?.. Without a doubt, they color the birch, but she needs them not for fashion.
- And for what?
- For procreation. We can say that these are her children.
- How is it - children? How can it be that carnations or pendants are children?
- There are many different miracles in nature, Mashenka. The chicken also does not immediately have a chick - first an egg is born, and a tiny chick hatches from the testicle.
- Grandmother, but a chicken, she's a bird, and a birch can't even walk.
- Mashenka, after all, animals and plants are relatives. In books, even a tiny blade of grass is called wildlife.
Mashenka thought for a moment: “Why did dad call birch catkins an object in the morning, if they are alive?”
Grandmother continued:
- Here, for example, an oak tree has its own children, which are called acorns. Do you remember when you and I saw them in our park?
- Well, yes, I remember. When we went down the hill to ride. These are such small nuts in funny hats?!
- That's right, granddaughter.
- But how can they be children? A big oak tree should give birth to a small oak tree, and this little oak tree will be the son of a big oak tree.
- So a small oak tree is born from an acorn, like a chicken from an egg.
- How is it?
- Very simple. An acorn jumps off a branch, hides in the ground and lies there, waiting for the right moment. Then its shell will burst and a small sprout will reach for the sun.
- And from a small sprout grows an oak tree?!
- That's right, granddaughter.
- And how do small birches come into being?
- Almost the same. Imagine that birch earrings are beautiful girls. Here these sisters gather in the spring in round dances and arrange songs and dances. Then they choose in each dance, the main sister ...
- What does it mean - the main one?
- I think... the one that dances the best. As if they define the queen of their unusual ball.
- How! Do they have a ball? .. just like in my favorite fairy tale "Cinderella"?
- One could say so, only he does not pass in their palace, but on the branches. The beautiful girls crown the main sister with a tiny wreath of pollen. And it begins to grow and swell from such a gift, fruit scales with miniature wings appear in it, which help to spread the breeze-workaholic around the district.
- And from these scales, like from acorns, small birches appear?!
- Exactly, granddaughter!
- Oh, grandmother, what did I do then! Today I broke the beautiful girls from the birch, - the girl just came to her senses, quickly ran into her room, grabbed the earrings from the bedside rug and brought them to her grandmother. “See, here they are, the unfortunate ones! Now the sisters will not arrange a ball, they will not choose the queen and the children will not hatch at the birch!
- It doesn't matter, Mashenka...
- Grandmother, well, it doesn't matter! Mom was left without her daughters! Can't they be glued back with paper glue?!
- Of course, you can't fit them back, just like you can't turn back time. But a few earrings - it's not scary at all. Sometimes people cut down a whole birch tree, make furniture from its wood, or heat a stove; at least they used to drown when I was young. Birch firewood gives a lot of heat and burns for a long time. A birch tree, you know, how much good it is for a person! In the spring, when the leaves have not yet opened, the juice runs to the branches under the white bark, this period is called sap flow. They make cuts on the birch and fill the vessels with this juice - it is very useful. True, the birch is weakened by this, and pathogenic microbes can get into the wounds, so you need to cover the incision with clay. And they break branches from her - brooms are made from them to bathe in the bath.
- How is it to bathe with brooms?
- Very simple. People whip each other in the steam room, as if they were guilty. They say that such a procedure drives the disease out of a person and even helps from the evil eye.
- And what, it doesn't hurt anyone?!
- There is a little bit, but for the sake of health you have to be patient. And the buds with leaves from the birch are collected, from which they make healing decoctions.
- What does it mean - healing?
- Healing means people are healed of various ailments. Birch is also a good helper in the household: from her birch bark, they didn’t do anything before: baskets, ladles, and even shoes were woven - it’s called bast shoes. And birch bark also served a person as a material for writing - they wrote on it earlier, as now in notebooks.
- Interesting... What is it? - birch bark?
- This is the top layer of birch bark. And from the autumn birches, you can even predict what spring will be: if the birch starts to turn yellow from the top, it means the heat will come early, and if from the bottom, the spring will be late.
- Grandmother, how do you know so completely?
- From books, baby, after all, there is passion in them as much as they say. Yes, and life teaches people. You will live to my age, you will also know a lot. When I was little, I also wanted to know everything, everything ...
- It's a pity that I haven't learned to read yet. I would definitely read about birch catkins, and would never pick them off. And now, the birch will cry without its children.
- It's enough for you already, because of nonsense, twist!
- It's not nonsense at all!
- Let's pretend that it was a special case, that they had to be collected as a medicine.
- Grandmother, can such a special case happen that someone will take me away from my mother or my father will be taken away from you?
- Don't talk nonsense, Mashenka! People cannot have this, every child should live with his mother! Go to sleep better, otherwise we will get! - Grandma said a little angrily, then put on her glasses, took her knitting from the table and clattered her knitting needles.
The little girl went to her room and stroked her birch catkins for a long time. There were tears in her eyes. She thought that the birch mother was grieving for her children, and imagined how she would sob without a mother.
Masha often thought about why she is her, and someone else is not her. Who so decided that someone was the very one he is now. Why, when her friend Svetka breaks her knees, only Svetka hurts, and the rest can only feel sorry for her. Why the cat Matilda can eat a mouse with pleasure, and Masha is scared to death of them, and would not eat them for anything in the world. Why was she born to her mother, and not to some other, for example, to Svetkina or to her mother-cat. Of course, Mashenka loved her parents very much and was pleased that she was her. It's just that the little girl could not understand why everything in the world is so arranged.
Masha took out her favorite box, put rings, shiny buttons, river pebbles out of it ... and carefully put birch earrings into it.
The girl could not fall asleep.
In the evening, the parents came home from work, had dinner, changed clothes and went to the cinema, or maybe to visit someone.
Grandmother put her granddaughter to bed. Then, after rattling the dishes a little in the kitchen, she lay down herself. Within a few minutes you could hear her snoring.
Masha got out of bed, took out birch earrings from the box and tiptoed towards the hallway. There she put on a blouse, put on shoes, took a plastic scoop, with which she usually went to play in the sandbox. And, opening the door lock barely audibly, she left the apartment.
It was already late, and street lamps were illuminating the streets. Mashenka looked at the sky, there were many, many stars. She sighed, went up to the birch and gently ran her hand over the bark.
- Forgive me, dear birch, for taking your babies from you. Forgive me please! I didn't know...
Masha dripped some earth with a shovel, kissed the earrings, and carefully placing them in a tiny hole, sprinkled them with earth.
- Here, dear birch, now they are next to you. Let the magic happen, let the bores hatch from them!
Mashenka again ran her hand along the trunk and felt moisture on it, in a moment, something dripped onto her cheek.
- The birch is crying, - the girl drawled and sobbed.
- Don't cry, Masha, - a whisper came from above. - Everything will be fine. You are a very kind, nice girl. Little birch trees will definitely grow... Go to sleep, baby.
Mashenka was very surprised: no one had ever told her that birch trees could talk.
To be honest, this is extremely rare. With adults, trees, and other dumb creatures, never try to talk at all. After all, adults think that animals, flowers, and we, the heavenly bodies, do not know how to express ourselves. But with children - sometimes it still happens. But at first it can even dumbfound the child. So Mashenka did not know how to behave and what to answer to the birch. The little girl walked towards the door. Going to the door, she stood a little, then turned around and whispered:
- Good night!
- Pleasant dreams! she heard back.
Masha fell asleep with a serene soul.

- Get up, sleepyhead! She heard her grandmother's voice.
Girl, slept longer than usual this morning.
After rubbing her eyes, Mashenka ran to the kitchen, where the whole family had gathered.
- Mommy, I went to the birch at night ... She talks, talks, mommy! And she cries - real tears!
- Daughter, you dreamed about it.
- No, mommy, everything was true! Everything really! Let's go, I'll show you! Grasping her mother by the hand, the girl pulled with all her might.
- Masha, calm down, please! - Stroking her daughter on the shoulder, the worried mother leaned her lips against her forehead. "Come to bed, you seem to have a fever."
Masha really fell ill: probably, a spring breeze passed through her late in the evening.
The patient was treated for more than a week, even several times the doctor was called to the house. Mom complained to him about her daughter's delirium about the talking birch. The doctor studied the girl, asked some questions, prescribed medicines and left.
Naturally, none of the adults believed the words of the little girl. And Masha decided not to tell anyone about this anymore, so that she would not be considered a liar or crazy.
And they became very good friends with the birch. Masha often went out to her secretly to chat. To tell the truth, they are still friends. Only now Mashenka is no longer Mashenka, but Maria Vladimirovna, because she grew up a long time ago and works as a teacher in a secondary school, she teaches biology to children.

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