What to do About the Aspens
Aspens are signature trees here. Almost every yard has at least one planted. Nurseries are full of them potted up for sale. They are the perfect small, upright shape for limited space in tight courtyards, they are pretty, the trunks are beautiful and they turn a gorgeous yellow in fall. They flutter and glitter in a breeze.
Santa Fe is leafy with aspens everywhere. We have two side by side in back and two shading the dining room windows.
The neighbors have a beautiful clump just over our shared fence. It is a focal point for our back courtyard even though it is on the other side of the fence.
But aspens can be trouble. Our back yard aspens are definitely in trouble. They were planted 20 years ago, as most in the neighborhood were, and aspens don't live long.
They need cool weather, water, compost and care. They are a native tree all over the Rocky Mountains, where they thrive without any care in cool forest duff, but down below in a city, in stressful conditions in gravel, they aren't so happy.
Our trees were not tended or watered by the former owners, and when we moved in late last summer, one of the pair in back had taken ill. Leaves were skimpy and thinning out, and the branches had swellings that are the telltale sign of twig gall fly, which can be a fatal problem in an already stressed tree.
When one tree has it, it spreads to others, and if those other aspen trees are stressed at all, they won't be able to fight off the twig gall fly.
Now, this spring I notice that my sick tree also has an orange weeping spot on the trunk, which is canker, a serious vascular trunk disease.
I can get a tree service here to spray and do soil injections and maybe that will help for a while. But a sick aspen is a hard thing to spend money on. Once it is infected, it is open to other pests and an old, stressed aspen can be a lost cause no matter what interventions are tried.
What to do? Here's the plan:
I'll water and fertilize and see if that helps.
I may call a tree service and have the aspens treated and see if that helps.
I'll wait this summer and evaluate how they are doing.
Then after all that I'll end up calling the tree service back, have them take down the aspens and plant something else. It's a matter of time.
Santa Fe is leafy with aspens everywhere. We have two side by side in back and two shading the dining room windows.
The neighbors have a beautiful clump just over our shared fence. It is a focal point for our back courtyard even though it is on the other side of the fence.
But aspens can be trouble. Our back yard aspens are definitely in trouble. They were planted 20 years ago, as most in the neighborhood were, and aspens don't live long.
They need cool weather, water, compost and care. They are a native tree all over the Rocky Mountains, where they thrive without any care in cool forest duff, but down below in a city, in stressful conditions in gravel, they aren't so happy.
Our trees were not tended or watered by the former owners, and when we moved in late last summer, one of the pair in back had taken ill. Leaves were skimpy and thinning out, and the branches had swellings that are the telltale sign of twig gall fly, which can be a fatal problem in an already stressed tree.
When one tree has it, it spreads to others, and if those other aspen trees are stressed at all, they won't be able to fight off the twig gall fly.
Now, this spring I notice that my sick tree also has an orange weeping spot on the trunk, which is canker, a serious vascular trunk disease.
I can get a tree service here to spray and do soil injections and maybe that will help for a while. But a sick aspen is a hard thing to spend money on. Once it is infected, it is open to other pests and an old, stressed aspen can be a lost cause no matter what interventions are tried.
What to do? Here's the plan:
I'll water and fertilize and see if that helps.
I may call a tree service and have the aspens treated and see if that helps.
I'll wait this summer and evaluate how they are doing.
Then after all that I'll end up calling the tree service back, have them take down the aspens and plant something else. It's a matter of time.
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