That is the end of this trees' attractive characteristics. Now lets consider the downside to this tree. The aspen is affected by a variety of insect and disease problems. The aspen wins the award here at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens for being number one in problem calls received. At that point, the aspen dies out.
Aspens reproduce primarily by suckering.
A grove of aspens are often all connected to each other and an original mother tree. This suckering habit is a great survival mechanism in nature but is a real problem in our yards as the sprouts pop up in lawns and gardens. Most every aspen eventually starts to grow suckers and unfortunately there is little that can be done to prevent this. Aspens are short-lived trees, even with the best care they are lucky to reach 20 years but often the several insects or diseases that attack aspen make their life even shorter. In fact, it is rare to see an aspen in Cheyenne that doesn't have every one of these problems occurring all at once.