Aspens (populus tremuloides) in coastal garden?

Hello from Greater Vancouver BC

I have a particular fondness for aspen trees - in a small clump (I believe they are all one plant even tho it looks like many trees) - anyway - has anyone experience with them at the coast in a semi-urban setting?

I have the trees (and I read on the Colorado edu extension service website that there are several ways of propagating - so I hope these I have from the nursery are seed grown or otherwise sustainably harvested)

I know for sure do not put them over the septic system (willows) - and I also know that odd numbers look best in a clump (I have 3 trees)

our garden is a slope with several heavy duty allen block retaining walls - some shade, some sun, forest-type soil, dry in summer, drains well in winter

has anyone ever seen them in large containers?

any advice?

thank you in advance

 

Aspen in general don't have good tolerance of coastal conditions, particularly salt spray. And Colorado origins, from close to the middle of the continent, will be even less well adapted. If you can, get a BC origin, from as close to the coast as you can find.

 

There are plenty of spontaneous as well as apparently planted aspen colonies here. Many of the presumably native groupings are found in wetlands - I have one such mere minutes from me, in a city park that has a swampy corner. However, leaf blackening is common in this area and Colorado style bark whiteness, yellowness of fall color are not to be expected.

The main issue with planting this tree in civilized settings is that it has an indefinite spread below ground, with single clones that are found to be covering entire mountainsides having made the news in the past. You certainly won't have to worry about how many trunks you start with, many more trunks are to be expected in the future. And the groupings of three or other odd numbers thing actually isn't that useful, three in a set for instance produces a static shape (triangle) that is not helpful when an appearance of movement is being planned.

 

Some local scientists recognize a coastal variant, see:

Populus tremuloides from the Royal BC Museum:

You can see copses of this variant growing on the edges of estuaries if you walk along the coastal trail at Witty's Lagoon in Metchosin.

 

Yes, the bark is a light to medium-grey instead.

 

thank you for all your details everyone

you just reminded me that in our little rural suburb here near Vancouver - there is in fact a very healthy patch of aspens that grow within 100 yards of the ocean, in a relatively sheltered bay so not much spray but it's still "oceany" in the air

now - if this little longtime aspen grove wasn't on private property - guess where I'd be digging up some choice little trees tonite

then again, maybe I should go and talk to the homeowner and do it the better way

 

Not a good time of the year (about the worst), plus small potted stock is often available at outlets here - you may be able to buy what you want up there without a big outlay.

 

Interesting one; a parallel case is the Scots Pine population around Shieldaig / Loch Maree in NW Scotland, an oceanic-adapted population of an otherwise largely continental climate species.

If available, the obvious aspen to get in the circumstances.

 

That hardly seems necessary, based on the large amount of the tree being grown in plantings down here. And the fact that it is native to the area. A.L. Jacobson, Trees of Seattle - Second Edition (2008) mentions it reaching 80' x 2' there. (And no, he's not somebody who would have measured another poplar as this species by mistake).