Question: My silver poplar has hundreds of sprouts coming up all over our yard. I’ve mowed them off, but now they’re like stubble. How can I eliminate them once and for all?

Answer: You can’t. That’s the way every one of these cottonwood relatives behaves. The sprouts are part of the original tree, so you can’t use a weedkiller. For the record, lots of folks refer to this as “silver maple,” but it’s easily distinguished by its smaller very deep green leaves with bright silvery undersides. Silver maples have light green, large leaves with no silver reverse.