Smoke Bush

TIf you've got a spot in the garden for something really eye-catching and a wonderfully different, consider the smoke bush, proper name - Cotinus. The foliage of this unusual ornamental is really quite astonishing, it’s attractive throughout the summer, but really turns up the volume in autumn, deepening to brilliant shades of purple, red, or orange-yellow, depending on the variety. However, the summer growth is the truly weird and wonderful aspect of this shrub because it has large, loose clusters of tiny greenish flower blossoms and as they fade the flower stalks get longer, until by midsummer they are covered with fuzzy purple or pink hairs, which look like puffs of smoke - hence the common name smoke bush or smoke tree.

You might think the sound of these showy blossoms and vibrantly coloured leaves make it a bit of a liability – a bit ‘Edna Everage’ as one TV gardening presenter likes to put it, but in fact the plant is subtle and combines readily with other perennials.

You need to be aware that, left to its own devices, this is a shrub that will grow into a tree. The Eurasian species, Cotinus coggygria, reaches a height of 15 feet; C. obovatus, a native of the south eastern U.S.A is even taller, reaching 25 to 30 feet. But it’s an easy plant to prune and keep in shape. A couple of the new cultivars are really worth trying to get hold of: Velvet Cloak has reddish purple leaves that hold their colour right through the season, before turning to a brilliant deep red in autumn, while the leaves of Royal Purple start off red, deepening to a rich purple that stays vibrant through the summer, then changing to shades of red, yellow, and orange in the autumn months.

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