Cotinus coggygria Old Fashioned - Smoke Bush

Cotinus coggygria 'Old Fashioned' is a vigorous bush with surprisingly rounded foliage. At first orange or purple, it then takes on an elegant bluish tint. The contrast between the mature foliage and the young shoots is spectacular! Finally, in autumn, the whole plant ignites in red and orange. It is an easy-care bush that appreciates chalky, rather poor and dry soils, and tolerates both full sun and light shade.

Cotinus coggygria, also known as the smoke bush, belongs to the Anacardiaceae family. Native to southern Europe, it is one of the few wild representatives of this family. It is most commonly found in open woodlands, on poor, fairly dry and chalky soils, up to an altitude of about 800 m (2624 ft 8 in). It is a bush with a rather gangly habit, with long flexible branches bearing rounded obovate leaves (i.e. wider at the tip than at the base) as if floating at the end of a long petiole. The foliage takes on beautiful autumn colours. Between May and July, the bush produces numerous light and fluffy paniculate inflorescences of a very pale pink. These panicles are excellent for dried bouquets.
In the 'Old Fashioned' Cotinus, the foliage is particularly striking: in spring, the young leaves emerge dressed in orange-purple. They then take on a rare bluish-green, somewhat metallic hue in strong contrast to the later new shoots. The show continues in autumn, as at that time, the entire bush flames up in a range of bright pink, red and orange. It generally reaches a height of 2.50 m (8 ft 2 in) with a width of 2 m (6 ft 7 in).

The 'Old Fashioned' smoke bush is a vigorous, accomodating and very hardy bush (it withstands temperatures below -15°C (5 °F), even -20°C (-4 °F)). In full sun it will express its full potential in soils close to its natural habitat, i.e. rather poor, chalky and well-drained, ranging from moist to dry once established. It does not tolerate acidic or wet soils. It will therefore be a valuable plant for somewhat barren, rocky and dry areas, even on slopes.
For Cotinus, pruning is optional, as they naturally adopt a rather loose and elegant habit, which eventually becomes somewhat tree-like. However, you can also select several main branches to shorten regularly if you wish. Heavy pruning results in the production of straight, vigorous and highly coloured branches, which can grow more than 1 m (3 ft 4 in) per year.
If it is very beautiful as a standalone plant or in a large pot, you can also associate your Cotinus with other bushes from the same habitat, such as Arbutus and bladder senna, or with perennials such as giant scabious, Russell's phlomis, Olympus St. John's wort, and lemon catnip in large dry-beds or rockeries