Limpet's Garden
Smoke bush or Venetian Sumach
Genus: Cotinus.
Species: Cotinus coggygria.
Decidious
Fully hardy
Full sun or part shade
Light mid-green leaves turning orange and red in autumn. Dusty mauve flowers that look like puffs of smoke or feather plumes appear in June and July.
PRUNE: Group 1 or 7 in spring (only if necessary)
PROPAGATION: Remove rooted suckers from parent bush and plant in autumn.
NOTE: Oct 2009 - after it flowered it started looking slightly poorly, slight misshaping of the leaves but I could see not sign of bugs so I've fed it and left it alone. Now looks a bit better.