Smoke Bush pruning question
freeda
16 years ago
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laceyvail 6A, WV
16 years agofreeda
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Upright Smoke Bush / Tree cultivar and pruning
Comments (10)You are looking at two different plants :-) Smoke bush is Cotinus coggygria, native to Asia and typically grows to about 15' if left unpruned. Smoke tree is Cotinus obovatus, native to the US and while often still very shrub-like, can get to be 35' tall. Both can be trained into tree forms and smoke bush is sometimes sold already trained this way in nurseries. 'Grace' is a hybrid between the two species and can get quite large - 25' is possible. But it also has a pretty wide, spreading habit often with multiple stems from the root crown so how likely it will respond to being trained into a tree form is a bit of a guess. You will need to start small if that's your intent. The flowers are the "smoke" effect - pruning back top growth on any sort of routine basis will typically result in a lack of flowers/smoke. Since you don't say how large this area is, it's impossible to say if 3 of these planted together are too many :-) But even if trained to a single trunked tree form, these do produce a healthy canopy spread - about as wide as tall, if not wider for the smoke bush; about 20-25' for the smoke tree. Plan accordingly....See Moreanother royal purple smoke bush pruning question
Comments (2)well I was wondering if the tree was struggling to bring nutrients to the top and hence the lack of leaves. I noticed that it's produced new branches near teh bottom of it's trunk. For this reason I thought maybe cutting it down may help to distribute it's nutrients better. Maybe I can get it to produce new branches and will try to get it growing in a more compact way. I will take your advise and wait it out a month or so.....See MoreButterfly bush pruning question
Comments (2)I just cut mine down today. The voles ate the roots on over half the big 'Black Knight', and those stalks were blown out of the ground (it's in a very windy spot). I cut the remaining half down to the usual height, about 12 inches. I want it to balance out with the new growth. Also this one gets pretty tall, about 6-7 feet, and I deadhead it regularly so I've got to reach the flowers heads. The Pink Delight is much less vigorous, but has lots of green shoots and a better form, so I cut that one down to about 2 feet, so it will hopefully grow taller this season....See MorePruning butterfly bush, russian sage, smoke tree
Comments (14)There are a lot of different things that use the common name, sage, Susan. Is it Russian sage? Can you tell us what the botanical name of your sage is--possibly from the landscapers plan? If not, can you post a few pictures? What to do with it will really depend on just exactly what you have. With more information somebody should be able to help you. Oh, and are you in the Rocky Mountain area? What's your zone? Welcome to RMG, Skybird...See MoreMarie Tulin
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