Aspen for zone 6?

Anyone know if the tree dubbed 'quaking aspen' would grow well in the Cincinnati area? I'd love to try it since it spreads by the roots but if it won't grow well or not at all, I don't want to waste my time or money planting one. Has anyone grown one in this area?

You'd do better with Bigtooth Aspen Populus grandidentata.

Resin

My uncle brought a few Quaking Aspen saplings from Colorado to his home in Arkansas and he now has a small grove of them in North AR., zone 7. My guess is they'd grow in Cin. for you.
In this photo, I believe, is his "Aspen grove" in AR. The next time I talk to him I'll ask how their doing. I've always been intrigued by those trees too.

You ought to contact the Boone County Arboretum. There's an Aspen fancier over there that could give you chapter and verse (along with genus and species) on the performance of these plants in your area.

See here: http://www.bcarboretum.org/

Great. Thanks for the tips everyone.

And here I am! Thanks ViburnumV. ;-)

Hc,

There is a new cultivar out that was released by the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum known as Prairie Gold Aspen (Populus tremuloides) 'NE Arb'. Cultivar info pages:
http://www.fallerlandscape.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=plants.plantdetail&plant_id=125
http://www.jfschmidt.com/pdfs/prairiegoldaspen.pdf

We have been trying out this cultivar at Boone County Arboretum (just southwest of Florence) for the last two years, and it does seem well adapted thus far. The main concern in our area would be leaf spot resistance, and thus far, I have not had any problems with that on our trees.

Here is the general cultivar info link from our website:
http://www.bcarboretum.org/CulturalInfo.aspx?VCID=881

In our area Natorp Nursery currently carries the plant. They have quite a few at the Mason location growing in pot in pot, and the Florence store location has a nice one in stock (I saw it as recently as last week). These are 25 gallon plants and a good 8-10ft tall.

The plants at the arboretum were provided as small whips, and I obtained a larger 25 gallon plant from Natorp to try it in a more harsh location near our front entrance.

As for native stands of Quaking Aspen, the nearest populations to us would be about 60 miles east, over in Adams County. I've not seen it there, but it is on the range maps there. There is also a very nice grove of it in Kenton County, KY (Morning View- Visalia area) in an old abandoned farm lot. We are trying to determine if it is native or was brought there. If native, it would be the only known population in KY, though historically it was once reported native around settlement times.

The Bigtooth Aspen is much more common in our immediate area, and as Resin mentioned, would do well here. It is more widely scattered south of I-70 in southern OH, IN and KY with populations south into the TN and NC mountains. As far as nursery availability, Ammon Nursery had a selection from an old grove that was growing along HWY 18 in Burlington, KY (just west of Florence), and they had quite a few that they were growing in containers and waiting to be sized up. We have 3 quite large specimens of this clone growing at the arboretum. After about 8 years of growth they are around 40ft tall, so they have grown QUITE fast to say the least. We are a little concerned that this might be a hybrid aspen of some sort as the branching is a bit different, and the leaves are more rounded with blunt teeth for Bigtooth... but otherwise it is probably at least 80% true, and appears to be a very nice form regardless.

There you go... hope this helps. I find the Quaking Aspen interesting because of its potential use as an alternative to the white barked birches that we must fight with borers over. In the right situations, the aspens could provide some beautiful contrast and one of a kind audible landscape interest with those constantly fluttering leaves on breezy days.

Cool, thanks. I really like that Prairie Gold. If Natorp's has that I might have to try one of those instead of the quaking. :-)

You are welcome... Prairie Gold Aspen is a selection of Quaking Aspen though, so you'll still be trying "Quaking Aspen". :-)