In my last posting, I talked about the smokebush – but looking at the end result the smokebush was pretty well hidden. Here Nancy has taken a picture that better shows off the small tree.

I am pretty sure the variety we have here is cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple,' which grows to an ultimate height of 12 feet. We keep it a bit shorter because it is right under the power lines to the house.

We've had it almost 20 years, and it has died back to the ground at least three times in harsh winters but by late June had produced new shoots from the roots.

I love it for its red leaves, but the flowers are a wonderful bonus. It has produced flowers only in the past three years. The puffy flowers, a sort of pink in this picture but with a bit of yellow up close, give a smoke effect – especially when there are a lot of them.

It is a zone 5 plant and we have seen you can have setbacks even in zone 5, so if you live inland skip it until global warming gets a lot worse.

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