On Amazon a set of five tealight holders made from birch poles costs $29.99; a bunch of eight birch logs 16- to 20-inches long sells for $27.99 and four 4-foot-long birch poles retail for $45.99.

Walter Reeves explains why a river birch tree might be shedding lots of leaves and why a crape myrtle tree might be send up suckers.

River birch is a favorite ornamental yard tree in the southern United States. It's hardy, loves living near water, and can be often messy to maintain.

But the firs set off the Geiger counter, too. They had radioactive carbon, and the only possible source was through the roots of the birch trees. Decades later, trees are still surprising us.

A number of conifers are candidates for the Official Evergreen of Winter, but among the leaf-shedding shade trees there is just one superstar, the birch tree with its peeling snow-white bark.