Welcome to Modern Agriculture!
Cotinus is famously known as the ‘smoke bush’, for its hazy plumes of soft pink, summer flowers that really do resemble clouds of soft smoke. However, it’s the oval-shaped foliage of these shrubs that makes a really dramatic statement. There’s a range of cultivars with leaf colour ranging from apple green through to purple, and they all share characteristically brilliant autumn colouring, with a fiery display of yellow, red and deep scarlet. Smoke bushes are mostly quite large shrubs or small trees, many reaching around 4m x 4m, but there are smaller cultivars available.
The smoke bush needs well-drained, fertile soil and a spot in a border in full sun or partial shade. Mulch annually with well-rotted manure or leaf mould in spring. It requires little or no pruning.
All cotinus varieties need well-drained, fertile soil and a spot in a border in full sun or partial shade.
Plant pot-grown cotinus in autumn, adding a generous spadeful of well-rotted manure to the planting hole.
Cotinus coggygria are easy shrubs to care for. They don’t need much pruning, but if you want to encourage bushy new growth with larger than average leaves, cut the stems back hard in early spring. Add a generous helping of well-rotted manure or leaf mould after pruning – but even if you don’t prune hard, they will also benefit from a good spring feed.
Propagate smoke bush by taking softwood cuttings in summer.
Cotinus coggygria are generally not plagued by pests and diseases – they can succumb to verticillium wilt, a fungal disease borne in the soil, which can cause dieback and affects the foliage. If your cotinus is affected, it’s hard to treat and the best approach is to remove and destroy the plant, taking care not to disturb the soil too much as this can spread the fungus. Don’t replant cotinus in the same spot.
