KTRS 550 Inside Out Show Plant of the Week November 14 2009 Smoke bush

Smokebush (or Smoke tree) is a clay friendly shrub and a distant relative of our native American Smoketree. Her botanical name is Cotinus coggygria. She has many different looks depending on the cultivar name she is wearing. Regardless of her name, she can be a worthy addition to any green space.

In general, cultivar names indicate that a particular form of a species has some special quality. ‘Velvet Cloak’ (also known as ‘Royal Purple’) has many special qualities and is the purple leaf form. There is also a yellow leaf form called ‘Golden Spirit’, a green leaf form named ‘Grace’ and an "always petite" version that goes by the name ‘Young Lady’. Regardless of the name the performance is unique and impressive!

I prefer her when she is dressed in shades of deep rich purple foliage. Then she goes by the name ‘Velvet Cloak.’ In this form she is a delightful and perhaps at her extreme best.

With a sense of style and casual elegance, she sports a champagne mink bark imbedded with soft charcoal flecks-trimmed with dark burgundy foliage-a total designer look!

It is her bark, its coloring and the way it fits her that made our first meeting so memorable. A major part of her charm is her light complexion of bark. It contrasts so well with whatever color foliage she wears.

Her naturally well tapered stems are remarkable too! Some say it is her best feature. Another trait is her “good bones”- her vertical branching. I love the way her skyward reaching limbs are grouped. It is like several candelabras stacked, welded together and carefully balanced on a stout but strong base trunk. Although she develops this characteristic in her youth, it improves with age till she becomes living art.

Her candle-like stems are like the intense young mothers that practice mall walking and child rearing. It is a challenge of mastering of motion and motherhood. Each flexible branch has a repeating series of leaf clusters that encircle the mother-like stems. However each leaf appears to be resentful of close quarters and the wind that tries to move them. They strain not to touch and stand firm where they are, as if committed to forever standing apart.

This little scene repeats along sections of stems, leaving each foliage family a preplanned amount of living space. This creates a high rise effect, with the most fortunate leaf clusters having the benefits of penthouse living! Eventually ‘Velvet Cloak’ stretches to the heights of 12’ or more. The over all effect is not too crowded, pleasantly organized and uniquely smoke bush.

She does have very tiny clusters of yellow green fairy size flowers. These are suspended by puffs of filament hair that remains and ages to mauve pink. This creates the billowy clouds of “smoke” that inspired her common name of Smoke bush.

She “steps out” again by autumn, after changing her attire to shades of gold, copper orange, red and purple. She could compete on the “Best Dressed List ” with her distance relative Sumac (Rhus). She sometimes comes that close to stealing the show.

She is polite, not invasive and has a minimalist's expectations. Less than average soil is ok with her, as long as it is well drained and not soggy. She likes sunshine. She is also a great soil stabilizer because of her fibrous root system.

Care Factor Rating: 1 Smoke bush ‘Velvet Robe’ (Cotinus coggygria) must be watered regularly till established. To maintain her natural branching habit, minimize any pruning to the removal of only the occasional damaged or dead branch. This can be done any time of the year. She is normally pest free and without any significant disease issues.

If blooming is not a concern, and her height must be regulated, stems may be cut back hard in early spring each year before leaf break. This will induce a surge of vigorous new growth with slightly larger than normal leaves. This will also change her form. This annual hard pruning will control size to some degree. It will also create a “smoke free” environment with no flowering. This care technique increases her care factor rating to 3 as it creates a high maintenance situation that is not needed for the health or ornamental appearance of the shrub. Over time this pruning method could cause some stress, affect her over all vigor and her winter appeal.