Hello Everyone,
Does anyone know if Silver Birch seeds are available in the US? Is the tree even grown in the US? I have been seeing the use of silver birch seeds to replicate small leaves in Dios, and would like to find some to test. I live in Cincinnati Ohio if that helps. A great thanks in advance to all who help with the search, I admit to being a flora challenged individual...

Best Wishes,
Walter

Any Birch should work Walter, I use White birch which is found in the North East.

Or you can just go here :

LINK

Thank you Lamont,
When is the best time to acquire the seeds? Sorry to sound like such a doofus.. Would now be a good time?

Hey there Walter,

Usually late spring, early Summer is the best time to pick them.

Take a paper bag, head out to the woods, and you can fill your bag pretty quickly.

Take them home, spread them out on a cookie sheet and put them in the oven at 100-150 degress, no more....to dry them out. Not sure how long as I didn't pay attention when I did mine. I just kept checking them until they were dry. Break them apart, and you will instantly see the little leaves.

There is a website on how to "cook" them and paint them if you don't like the natural dried look.

http://www.reapermini.com/TheCraft/24

First off,

you don't want the seeds themselves, think of a pine cone in miniature. The cone distributes the seeds and whats left behind are the objects that separated the seeds, those are what you use as leaves.

Now, I don't want to look like I'm disagreeing with Scott but I wait until fall to pick mine, just when they are getting brown and beginning to open up. I don't have to bake them or anything, I just have to sift out the remaining seeds and separate them from the leaves.

The link above states that once ripe they dry out and the 'leaves' fall away and only the seeds remain on the tree. This isn't what I find to be the case at all and if it was, how would the seeds be germinated if they remained on the tree ?

What I find ( around here anyway ), is that the seeds fall away and are distributed all over the ground via the wind etc. the birch cones or 'catkins' themselves remain on the tree, although now fragile to the touch.

I guess both ways will work, perhaps a little experimentation would be a good idea ?

Wow talk about timing, I just came back from taking my dogs for a walk in the woods and managed to find some more birch seeds(leaves). I too have never used them before and thought they would be great for my scrapmetal dio. I guess if you look you can still find some around.
How do you guys secure them? I started to glue them in place one at a time, with wood glue and it's taking forever.
Sorry for jumping in like this, but I'm new at doing dio's and what you guys do with your diorama's are awesome.

Rob

Thanks again everyone! Scott, I printed the article you linked too. Very informative. Thank you again Lamont. I need to find out if any of the nature preserves or parks nearby have birch trees. Knowing me, I probably wouldn't recognize one even if I ran into it. literally...
But anyway, thank you all for all you time and help. I really appreciate it.


Best Wishes from Ohio,

Walter

I spray the groundwork with Aqua Net then spread on the 'leaves' before the Aqua Net dries. Then I use an eyedropper with a 2:1 mix of water and white glue to fix the leaves.

Walter I too have no idea what birches look like, I happened to spot the the seeds on the snow then searched the fallen branches. If you know what the seeds look like then the tree has to be there somewhere.
Great idea with the hair spray, will have to try it,thanks.

Rob

Here are what birch trees look like.

Keep in mind they can be varying sizes,

White Birch (Sometimes called Paper Birch)








Their Seed Pods



Also another link I found for making trees and such:


http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/abarothsworld/Tricks/flowers%20&%20foliage.htm

Silver Birch





Yellow Birch

Thank you Scott!
Thanks for the visual references. Now I have a better understanding of what to look for. I really appreciate the help.

Best WIshes,

Walter

hey guys. the birch grows all over the U.S. and Canada as far as I know. late summer or early fall for picking seeds. best glue I have found ia aleenes thick tacky glue. dries clear with good bond. don't forget to paint as they will turn brown in time. and yes it takes forever to assemble a tree but when glued leaf by leaf, they will always look like a real tree. when you spray and sift material on your tree, you get leaves upside down and pointing the wrong direction and it looks just like sprinkled on stuff. anything worth while takes time. I am on my second dio with this type of tree and the results are great. there are a few blogs on this site about how to do them so good luck. Still having camera download problems so haven't been able to post pic's yet but will figure it one day and post them.