Yes, I got a one gallon "royal purple" smoke tree on cleareance for $2.50 at Home Depot last fall.

I kept it in the pot until about a month ago. The top part of the stem died in the cold weather but there is a lot of new growth now. The leaves are very pretty. I will also be training mine into a small tree as it is between me and my neighbors driveway and there is only about 10 feet of room.

How did they keep it dormant all this time? Mine has been leafed out since late march/early April.

i had one ... bought as a babe ... after a few years.. it was way above the gutters .. huge potential ... and it suckered rather freely ... so though you might want it in tree form.. it might be quite a battle ... not that it cant be done ...

and if i recall... it took quite a few years to mature enough to bloom ...

try that google images trick i gave you in the other post ...

ken

I received my Smoke Tree yesterday via the post office. I already had the hole dug and native soil in the wheelbarrow read to put back in. I wanted to plant it the moment the mail woman arrived.

I opened the box and found a tree whip, which was just fine by me. It was a snap to plant.

tlbean2004, my guess is they kept it in some refrigeration storage.

No it was fine when i got it but i set it under the carport during the winter and it suffered a little dieback. It growing great now though.

Sorry, I just realized i asked you how they kept it dormant. lol

The variety you ordered is an old cultivar of purple smokebushes. Newer ones generally have better purple color. IMO, purple smokebushes look best as cut back plants. You don't get flowers (the smoke) but you get a fantastic flush of purple leaves--the better the cultivar, the better the color.

I never gave an update on this tree. The smoke tree was dead; it never showed any signs of life after planting. It was the first time, and only time I ever had a bad experience on Ebay. The seller was a 1st class JERK and refused, last year, to refund me. I escalated my complaint and I eventually got refunded.

That experience makes me wonder if Smoke Trees are foo foo trees.

Mine is alive and well. Its put on a good few inches so far this year.

No flowers yet.

I have a tonto crape myrtle, kousa dogwood, dwarf cavendish banana, and a thailand giant elephant ear that i purchased from ebay and in the summer of 2014 and they are all still alive and growing out of control. I like buying plants from ebay. Although i have had the occasional bad experience with something dying.