Aspens, love them or leave them?

When I first moved into my current home I was thrilled to find 12 quaking aspens scattered about the front and back yards.  It was mid September and their yellow leaves would flutter gently in the slightest breeze.  What a wonderful contrast the leaves were to the white trunks!  Truly magical. 

source: wikimedia commons

Sadly, the love affair with the aspens only lasted until the following spring when they began to show their true behavior.  I found  myself wondering what were all those shoots with red and green leaves growing up through the grass all over both lawns, in flower beds, in the raspberries, and even up through the hedge?  What were those annoying shoots that would reach 6 to 8 inches tall in just one week between mowings?   Some of these shoots pulled out easily, but most wouldn't budge even with a dandelion puller. The only way to remove them (temporarily) was to cut them at their base - I did that with a vengeance.  I can't even begin to convey how frustrating it was to have the beauty of my lovingly tended yard marred by these hundreds of devilish shoots.

The fallen leaves didn't work well as mulch either because instead of breaking down like most leaves, they formed a thick, almost impenetrable, mat. My daffodils couldn't even come up through them.  At one point I tried a very expensive bottled root killer which slowed down the shoots but didn't kill them.   As an organic gardener, using that stuff didn't sit well with me. Last, but not least, in the spring they grow catkins prior to leafing out which can be as long as 4 inches.  I've had what seemed like millions fall on my patio to form a thick gray blanket.

Time to do some research.  I discovered that in the West quaking aspens (populus tremuloides) thrive in cool mountain meadows where they form thick clumps from suckering.  The largest known clump, nick-named "Pando" or the "trembling giant", which is now thought to be one tree, is in Utah, covers 107 acres, has around 47,000 stems, and is about 80,000 years old. They form a tight grid of roots several inches below the soil surface and when an above ground stem dies, it is replaced by a new one growing up from the grid.  They will eventually die out only if the large trunks are cut out and the new shoots continuously removed.

So why do people plant them?  Well, most nurseries won't tell you the true story, or perhaps don't know it.  Buyers are enchanted both by the high speed of growth and the loveliness of the trees.  So much so that you can have good shade on a new property in just a few years - a developer's delight! Unfortunately, hot dry environments like Boise, ID, where I live, are far from ideal for aspens, so they only live for about 15 years.

I am now down to just 2 of the original 12 aspens in my yards - in 7 years all the rest have sickened and died. My front lawn is finally free of shoots but I'm still fighting them in the back yard, and will continue to fight them until the final two trees are gone.   The larger and older of the two remaining trees provides critical shade for my patio so I will keep it until one of two things happens:  1) the maple I've planted nearby gets big enough to replace the shade of the aspen or  2) the aspen dies.  At this point it is anybody's guess which will happen first.

So If you're thinking of planting some new shade trees, think again before you choose aspens.  They are gorgeous but a real pain to keep in check.