Cotinus, European Smoke Tree, Purple Smoke Tree 'Purpureus'

This plant is supposedly a very drought tolerant species, and admittedly I have seen some nice specimens here in the inland, high desert ...Read Morein California where annual rainfall can be as low as 2" a year. But do NOT think it is THAT drought tolerant. When I bought these trees, the planting instructions warned multiple times NOT to overwater these trees and to be sure they were planted in well draining soil (well. the latter here is all we have so that was easy). I watered these trees 3x a week since this is the desert after all.. both trees eventually defoliated. So I upped the water to daily and created huge bowls around them to fill with lakes of water... and they grew back and are doing well. So overwatering these trees as not as easy as it might sound. Those with healthy trees here in this climate water them all the time.

I have a purple smoke tree in the far corner of my yard that literally grew out of nowhere. It's been there for years, is in VERY sandy ...Read Moresoil, gets NO water other than what nature provides (which is very little during the summer months) and it flowers every year. This year I had the opportunity to landscape and plant so I went out and took a naturally layered specimen from it to put in a visible part of yard. The single root that came out of the ground with that plant was literally two feet long! After 4 months of nurturing and root growth, I've placed the growing babe into it's permanent place in my backyard. Next year I hope to take another for the front of the house. Smoke trees are tough, beautiful plants.

I have a purple and a green variety of the smoke tree in my front yard. They are both in full sun. The first year they did nothing, th...Read Moree second year they bloomed a little and this year the purple variety bloomed incredibly and the green just a little. They are in the middle of my yard and are watered regularly, I don't know how they would do if not watered. This was also the first year they were fertilized. I love these small trees and people that come to visit always comment on them.

I have had the plant for about a year. Was told that it required full sun. Planted it in the front which gets full sun until late in th...Read Moree evening. It gets really hot here this time of the year. All the leaves started turning brown. I was in a nursery and the lady there said it needed shade and so it was moved to my back yard where it is mostly shaded. Gets a little sun. The plant is still living but has not grown an inch
since we bought it. I will see how it does in partial shade.


Juear @ aol.com Overton, Tx. zone 8