Cotinus coggygria Flamissimo - Smoke Bush

Cotinus coggygria 'Flamissimo’ is an improvement of the 'Flame' variety with a more compact and regular growth, even without pruning! It forms a bush of about 2m (6 ft 7 in) in height and 1.80m (5 ft 11 in) in width, with its main attraction being its large green leaves turning purple, vermilion red, orange, and intense yellow in autumn. In early summer, it bears inflorescences that rise above its foliage in large, feathery pinkish-purple panicles. It is a hardy, robust, and undemanding bush that particularly appreciates hot and sunny exposures and well-drained, poor, dry soils. Its dense and reduced growth makes it interesting for decorating small gardens and terrace pots. Use it to bring colour and movement to your informal hedges and as a background for your borders with grey or golden foliage species such as grasses and lavenders.

Cotinus coggygria, also known as smoke bush or wig tree, is a bush from the cashew family, native to southern Europe and Asia. In nature, it grows on rocky slopes, on poor soils and in dry climates. The 'Flamissimo’ variety is an improvement of 'Flame' with a more regular and compact growth. It reaches a size of about 2m (6 ft 7 in) in height and 1.80m (5 ft 11 in) in width at maturity. Cotinus coggygria 'Flamissimo’ forms small flower panicles in June, with elongated pedicels forming a long plume covered with hairs: the inflorescence then takes on a smoky pinkish-purple hue, with a feathery appearance, which earned this species its name of smoke tree. Its deciduous round-shaped leaves appear from April and change colour throughout the season.

Truly easy to grow and extremely undemanding, the Cotinus 'Flamissimo’ finds a place in all gardens, even the smallest ones, or in a large pot on the terrace or balcony. In this case, it is advisable to choose a large, heavy, and stable container that the wind will not be able to knock over. Once well established in the garden, it tolerates drought well but does not tolerate excessive humidity in winter, especially in heavy soils. Like deciduous euonymus, it is very useful for brightening up informal hedges or low-growing evergreen shrub borders such as boxwoods, escallonias, and compact laurel trees. Its fabulous autumn colours perfectly complement late-flowering shrubs in shades of pink and tall autumn asters with mauve flowers (Aster laevis, turbinellus...). In bouquets, pair its purple panicles with white, pink, red, mauve, or violet roses.