Unseasonably warm weather can trigger aspen trees to get ready for spring long before the danger of late freezes has passed. Last year (2012) the aspen in my yard at 8000' and mostly south facing put out their leaves and then had those same leaves frozen by a late season bout of cold weather. The trees did put out some new leaves but they never looked their best all season.
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Dead leaves from a freeze, large leaves that survived freeze,
and small new leaves that emerged after the freeze - they are all there |
With the up and down temperatures that we are seeing this year, this may happen again. I had calls from several neighbors last year that thought their trees were succumbing to a disease. This year I have one aspen that is close to the south side of the house that is starting to open a few buds with the warm weather recently. Hopefully the deep freeze we just went through will slow it down. Below is a link to an article in our sister blog in Jefferson County that explains how we can have blooming aspens in January.
Aspen Catkins in January! How Trees Know When to Leaf by Mary Small
http://jeffcogardener.blogspot.com/2013/01/aspen-catkins-in-january-how-trees-know.html
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