I like the idea of something purple/with dark foliage to contrast with the white trunks. I recall seeing silver birches underplanted with a sea of ophiopogen p. nigrescens and it looked absolutely stunning. If you are going to go for plants against your fence and/or coppice the birches, you could go for something smaller as ground cover.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
If you go down the willow route, Salix eleagnos would be much nicer than horrid goat willow! Re coppicing birches, they respond better when young apparently so if you decide to run with that idea, don't leave it too long.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
I am not having much luck sourcing Hazel Coryus Maxima (purple leaf) here. I will have to take a look at just what the GC has on offer to fit between the birch. Perhaps I will follow @BenCotto - I like the look he has achieved from planting them close together.
Do your Garden Centres sell trees, ours have very little choice.
If you plant shrubs, especially hazel, beneath the birch @Guernsey Donkey2 they will aà hide the silvery stems for which the birch are adlmired and b) need regular coppicing to keep them under control and c) struggle and weaken once the birches get to any height and spread out their roots. Too much competition fo rnutrients and water.
Remember many moons ago when you asked for advice on clematis and later confessed to wishing you'd followed the advice about varieties............
Stick to ground cover and seasonal interest plants that like dry, dappled shade.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Yes I did put the clematis in a pot that turned out to be far too small for it - as you so rightly predicted @Obelixx - so now it has been set free and is planted in the garden soil where it can spread it's roots as much as it needs to. I am hoping it will flower again next year.
The Silver Birch/border of our field has to be a screen to block out the view as much as possible of these enormously tall new houses - they also have to be attractive as well as of interested to the birds, moths etc. and native too. I was looking for advice on under planting the trees with something that would grow a 2 or 3 metres or perhaps a little more but not too wide. GW magazine has a few useful suggestions this month, and then there are bulbs too of course.
Plants that tall won't like being in competition with birch roots. They will struggle and get sick and/or die. I don't know how to say it any more clearly. I don't understand what you don't understand about the simple fact about birch tree roots.
If you do manage to accept that, you clearly need to plant behind their canopy or in front to get th escreen you need so please do re think the goat willow horror and take a look at a tall mesh fence up which you can plant a thorny screen. It will require less space on the ground and not compete with the birches. It will attract wildlife and deter human pests.
Time to think about a plan B.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
How far from the fence line are the birches? If there's enough space, it might work better to have a belt of shrubs inside the fence line, with the birches further into the garden with bulbs etc underneath. That way the white trunks would show up nicely against a backdrop of darker shrubs.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
A few pictures of a couple of Silver Birch trees that we planted some 20 years ago, at the same time as a few other small trees and the mixed hedge just behind the trees - before this hedge was planted we had a long line of Leylandii trees/hedge which the previous tenants had planted - it was loved by the blackbirds but looked awful with brown tops where it had been pruned and bare bottoms!
Posts
Remember many moons ago when you asked for advice on clematis and later confessed to wishing you'd followed the advice about varieties............
Stick to ground cover and seasonal interest plants that like dry, dappled shade.
If you do manage to accept that, you clearly need to plant behind their canopy or in front to get th escreen you need so please do re think the goat willow horror and take a look at a tall mesh fence up which you can plant a thorny screen. It will require less space on the ground and not compete with the birches. It will attract wildlife and deter human pests.
Time to think about a plan B.