Smoke tree

I know when summer is here when our cotinus shines as if it was on fire! It’s familiar name is smoke tree or smoke bush because when the flowers come they are pale and light and are in clouds of tiny blooms which look like little puffs of  smoke.  Our cotinus is a purple-red so the impression of fire is even more striking, particularity in brilliant sunlight.

The cotinus is a handsome tree which can grow to 15 foot tall… ours would be bigger than that if we hadn’t trimmed it rather severely. Even so it is at least 12 foot now! We planted it at the front of our house, thinking as it was called a bush, it would be bush sized. It likes us rather too well and is very vigorous… but on a sunny summer’s day we forgive it because it looks so lovely glowing in the light!