Forum home› Tools and techniques
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Cleaning tree - Birch or Tibetan Cherry Tree

chloesriverschloesrivers Posts: 4
in Tools and techniques

Hi all!

I will keep this short as possible.

I'm a shoot producer working for a photographer who is lucky enough to be able to take breaks here and there and shoot his own projects either for his portfolio or to use at a later date, maybe to be published in a Sunday supplement etc. He has always wanted to find someone to shoot cleaning the bark of a birch or Tibetan cherry tree, strange as it may sound!
So I'm on the case to find that person. He has an idea for a mini series of people with unusual rituals, and this is an offshoot of that series. We are both based in East London and don't mind travelling about 2 hours away.
I wanted to know if you had a suitable tree which we could photograph you cleaning, or if you knew anyone that does? 
It's been so hard to me to find someone who does this who would be up for a shoot, but we have one booked in already! A member of the Kew Horticulture Society is going to be our first subject, but we are looking for a few more.
 
Do let me know if this sounds like something you could be interested in.
You can reach me here - [email protected] or 07709491149.

We are hoping to shoot within the next 3/4 weeks.
 
Thanks so much,
 
Chloe Rivers.
«1

Posts

  • chloesriverschloesrivers Posts: 4
    Thanks for calling me kiddo (I'm 36) but it's an actual thing. Featured on Gardeners World and on a few blogs out there.
    People clean, peel or buff the bark to give it a spruce after it grows moss and gathers dirt.
  • chloesriverschloesrivers Posts: 4
    edited June 2019
    No it's definitely real :)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4uJtpQK3ZA
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    "Life's too short for buffing bark"

    You could make the same argument for deadheading roses, pinching out annuals, training climbers, trimming topiary etc etc. But enhancing and modifying the appearance of plants is what gardening's all about surely.

    https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/garden/455639/Wash-and-groom-Alan-Titchmarsh-on-how-to-look-after-your-silver-birch-trees
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • Chrissy the gardenerChrissy the gardener Posts: 1,072
     I’m almost embarrassed to say I wash and clean the bark of my silver birch, I saw Alan Titchmarsh demonstrating it on one of the garden programs a good while ago.
    I have only two silver birches so it doesn’t take long but it gets the brown and green algae of and they shine white all summer.
  • chloesriverschloesrivers Posts: 4
    Chrissy that’s amazing! You are just what we are looking for! Can I ask if you would be up for a shoot? We literally just need close ups of your hands cleaning the tree. 
    Where abouts are you based? 

    Chloe 
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530
    Thank goodness my trees can't read.

    When I read the headline, I thought, "A tree that can clean?! Reserve one for me."
  • richcronk30Ns9s6_w-richcronk30Ns9s6_w- Posts: 4
    Just seen this...so I'm late to the party.
    Sounds as though you are sorted with Tibetan cherry and silver birch
    Got both.
    Also a few bamboo varieties.
    . Happy to help as an amateur but enthusiastic gardener in hampshire
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    I'm just wondering how much spam and hoax phone calls the OP got.
    How daft can you be to put all your contact info on an open forum!  :D

    The thread is almost two years old @richcronk30Ns9s6_w-, so I doubt they'd still be interested  ;)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • rachelQrtJHBjbrachelQrtJHBjb Posts: 819
    Try contacting the Hiller arboretum in Hampshire. They have a winter garden full of white-barked birches and I'm sure they give them a clean.
  • Ferdinand2000Ferdinand2000 Posts: 537
    edited September 2020
    I hope that whoever ends up doing this will encourage a reasonable donation to a local charity for helping in lieu of a site fee - say £50-100 or so, as there is obviously a reasonable budget involved.

    At places like the National Trust (eg Hardwick has a new winter walk with lovely silver birches) the photography fee has previously been about £500 a day for inside photography whether commercial or amateur - though this has changed for amateur in recent years. They used even to send snotty letters if you wanted to photograph a tomb in one of their chapels.

    I would expect any of the public gardens would expect such a fee.

    F

    “Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
Sign In or Register to comment.