PlantSowGrow
How to plant and care for Smoke Bush (Royal Purple)
Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple'
🌸 Flower
🔁 Perennial
Rich wine-purple leaves turning scarlet in autumn, and fluffy, smoky plumes of flowers in summer.
When to plant and care for it
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Flowers
Prune
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Smoke Bush (Royal Purple): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water well for the first summer, then in dry spells
- Soil
- Fertile, well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 3 m
- Height
- 3–4 m
- In pots
- Best in the ground
- Feeding
- Balanced feed in spring
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 5–8
Step by step
- On planting day
Plant
Plant at the same depth as it was in its pot, 3 m apart, and firm in.
- 0–1 days after “Plant”
Water In Well
Give a full can of water, then keep moist for the first few weeks while roots establish.
- 7–14 days after “Water In Well”
Mulch Around the Base
Spread 5 cm of compost or bark around the plant, keeping it off the stems.
Every year
- MarchPrune
For the biggest leaves, cut stems back hard to a low framework each spring (you lose the "smoke"). Otherwise just tidy.
- JulyIn Flower
Smoky plumes over purple leaves.
- OctoberAutumn Colour
Scarlet autumn leaves — take a photo.
