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.

Have you actually checked the dryness of the rootball, by sticking a finger down into it? It MAY be that for some reason, the water is running off the rootball, or is migrating too rapidly into the surrounding soil, leaving the roots lacking water. Unless you got all the shrubs from one grower (not nursery, unless they grow all their own shrubs) there's no telling how the "soil" mixture that was used in the pot for this smokebush that may be differing from the mixture for the others. I would first check that. If it is dry, then really soak it, above and beyond the 1" used for the others, and then keep it moist until your ground freezes - NOT on a schedule, but after checking with a finger or pointed stick to see if it is moist/cool down about 2" - if dry, water, if moist, wait. I would also do a "scratch test" on a couple of branches - lightly scrape at the bark - if the cambium layer, just under the bark, is still green, then the plant is alive. If kept watered, through the rest of this year and through the next year as well, then it should leaf out fine come spring - it responded to a lack of water by going dormant early. If the cambium is brown/wood colored, then that branch is dead from the tip to at least that point. Keep testing until you find green cambium. Water and wait for spring. If you can keep the roots alive, then there is a good chance that you will get shoots from them come spring. They may be late, so don't give up too early.

Judi, Just prune off DEAD wood in the fall, now. If in doubt, do nothing. The only way a smoke bush or tree should be pruned is COPPICING. So, if you don't want to cut it down to the frame, just look real close and make sure what you are cutting off is absolutely brown, dead. Next spring you will have your bloom then. Just cut dead. Not live. If you look at the branch closely, you will see little "bumps" or spots where the branches for blooms come from. (just for your info, to answer your questions on where it blooms from). WHen it has no leaves on it, and it is bare, stand back and look at it from about 12 feet. You will see the bush's frame. WHen you go to coppice it, you cut off every single branch down to the main trunk of each arm. That is what coppicing is. Some people cut it all the way to the ground nd leave about 3 inches of main stems, which you can also do, but you will not get any blooms that year cutting it to the ground. When you just cut all the stems back to the trunk, you will get some blooms, and beautiful foliage too. It all depends on how big you want the bush to be and if you want blooms or not. Good luck to you, you have a wonderful bush. I'm looking for a Velvet Cloak for next spring.

According to Southern Living Garden Book you don't have a prayer with Ninebark. Sambucus and Cotinus are both said to grow in the lower south, however, other sources I have read have been highly discouraging. I tried Sambucus, Lanciniata a few years ago and it did fine in almost complete shade with constant moisture, however, it quickly became too large for the spot. So I moved it to morning sun where it slowly declined and died over about three years. It was a gawky looking thing, throwing big long whips of branches in all different directions but never thickening up into a shrub. It could have been my fault. I don't know, but I have not been willing to try again. I love golden green shrubs too. HEre are the ones I have grown with my results here in Meridian, MS (East Central, almost on a straight line with Dallas/Fort Worth) Chaemycyparis pisifera, "Filifera Aurea": The only tall golden green I have had success with, but it is a true winner. It gets afternoon shade in two areas of my yard. In one, it gets constant moisture, in the other, it competes with large deciduous trees. Both have been successful. It is a gorgeous tree. Berberis thunbergii, Aurea: Not a big shrub. About 4X4 feet, and thorny. But it is a wonderful shrub for my area. I have it in morning sun, afternoon shade, and in all day full blazing sun. It succeeds in both areas. It looks good from very early spring, to very late fall. Many years it is the last shrub to shed its leaves, and its fall color is a bonus: orangey, pinkish, red. Other than the thorns, it's just about perfect. I do not shear it. I like the twiggy look, and, as I said, it's a very slow grower. Spirea thunbergii, Ogon (Mellow Yellow): A beautiful shrub, but it is struggling. I have three of them. The two that get afternoon shade are hanging in there. The one that was getting full sun appears to have died. I have had them about three years now. They were just rooted cuttings when I mail-ordered them. They are now about 2.5x2.5. They have masses of small white flowers from the time the early spring bulbs begin blooming for about a month. When they leaf out, they just glow. The problem is in our hot summer sun, they tend to scorch. Still, with the right location, they are like no other shrub with their fine, fluffy texture. I just received three Ilex crenata, Lemon Gem shrubs. I am hopeful that they will be successful in full sun. I also grow Deutzia, Chardonnay Pearls. It is beautiful in the spring. It leafs out a perfect chartreuse, and its white blooms are breathtaking. The problem is the leaves turn green by mid summer. I have it in almost all day shade, so am contemplating getting another and trying it in more sun to see if the leaf color holds better. It is small: about 3'x3'. Tanacetum vulgare, Isla gold is a ferny, chartreuse leaved perennial that gets about 2 feet tall and wide. I have had it for several years, and it is one of my very favorite perennials. There is absolutely nothing bad I can say about it: the foliage is ferny and beautiful, the color is gorgeous, it never burns, gets eaten, or diseased. I have it in full sun with way more water than I would have thought it would like, but nothing phases it. I found at the garden center last week a brand new Rosemary called Gold Dust that is a beautiful gold/green variegated form. It is an upright form and I plan to make it a centerpiece in a pot in one of my gardens. There is a golden leaved Redbud out there, but it is not widely available yet. I keep waiting for the price to come down a bit, but I have high hopes for it. There is also a golden Catalpa that should also do well for us in the Deep South, but I have never seen it offered anywhere.