I was watching a gardening programme on TV recently which highlighted the effect of planting three silver birches close together in order to get increased impact from the bark colour during the winter. Although this is good in larger gardens, do you think that it is a practical proposition in smaller ones like mine?

C Davis, Stourport.

Certainly, planting a group of three silver birches can produce a stunning effect, especially with a Himalayan variety like Betula jacquemontii, renowned for the whiteness of their bark.

To produce this effect, the trees are usually planted in a triangle about one metre (3ft 3in) apart and, over a period of years, they are likely to get fairly tall and spreading so I can appreciate your concern if you only have a small garden.

Another solution is to either buy or create a multi-stemmed tree which provides a similar effect with only one root system. You find a multi-stemmed tree on sale in a garden centre but making one from a young single stemmed specimen is not difficult, thoughit will take about three years to see the effect.

First plant the young tree and in the first winter cut the main stem down to 8cm (3in) above the soil.

New growth will begin in spring and by the following winter you can choose about three well-spaced shoots to become your new trunks. All other shoots should be cut back hard to the base.

By the winter of the third year, your tree will really be beginning to take shape and now you should allow the side shoots to develop, gradually removing the lower ones if you want the trunks to be bare towards their bases.

Apart from silver birches, snake bark maples (Acer hersii or Acer davidii) and the paper bark maple (Acer griseum) make good multi-stemmed trees but my favourite is Acer pensylvanicum "Erythrocladum".

This grows into a beautiful multi-stemmed feature for winter interest with candy pink stems bearing white striations and you get good, yellow, autumn foliage colour into the bargain.