Cotinus coggygria Flame - Smoke Bush

Cotinus coggygria 'Flame' is a variety of bush known for its distinctive round and regular habit, and its foliage that changes from brown in spring to green and then to yellow-orange to fiery red in autumn! It forms a large bush with large smooth egg-shaped leaves, whose colours are enhanced by bright red petioles, veins, and young stems. From June to July, it produces airy panicles of pinkish-purple flowers that turn dark purple-brown and remain decorative until October. This variety shares the same hardiness and robustness as the species, only disliking heavy and overly rich soils. It particularly enjoys warm and sunny exposures, and well-drained, poor, rather dry, even rocky and limestone soils. This variety maintains a bushy and compact appearance without requiring regular pruning. It is a dazzling subject that should be planted in the back of borders or as a stand-alone specimen, near the terrace to admire it up close.

Cotinus coggygria, also known as smoke bush, is a bush from the family Anacardiaceae, native to southern Europe and Asia. In nature, it grows on rocky slopes, on poor soils and in dry climates. The variety 'Flame' is particularly compact and has a regular habit. It reaches a height of about 5m (16 ft 5 in) and a width of 2.5m (8 ft 2 in) at maturity. In June, Cotinus coggygria 'Flame' produces panicles of small pinkish-purple flowers, whose pedicels elongate to form a long feathery fruit cluster covered in hairs: the inflorescence then takes on a smoky brown-purple hue, which earned this species its name of smoke tree. Its round, deciduous leaves, 10 to 15 cm (3.9 to 5.9 in) long, appear as early as April and change colour throughout the season.

Truly easy to grow and extremely undemanding, Cotinus 'Flame' can find a place in any garden, even in a large container on the terrace. In this case, a large and stable container that won't be toppled by the wind should be chosen. Once well established in the garden, it tolerates drought well but doesn't tolerate excessive moisture in winter, especially in heavy soils. Like deciduous euonymus, it is very useful for brightening up informal hedges or evergreen bush borders that are not too tall, such as boxwoods, escallonias, and compact cherry laurels. Its fabulous autumn colours pair perfectly with late-flowering shrubs in shades of pink and large autumn asters with mauve flowers (Aster laevis, turbinellus...). Otherwise, use it to bring colour and dynamism to informal hedges and as a background for your borders with grey or golden foliage species such as grasses and lavenders. In bouquets, combine its purple flower plumes with white, pink, red, mauve, or violet roses.