Add a billowy, whimsical backdrop to any landscape with smoke trees that flutter in every breeze. Garden expert Logan Hailey digs into how to grow and maintain the fluffy, smoke-like puffs of this intriguing ornamental.
One of the most intriguing landscape ornamentals, smoke trees have an ethereal aesthetic that evokes a sense of drama and mystery in the garden. The billowy hairs that dangle from the smoke tree’s wispy spent flower stalks resemble a smoke-like puff, giving this tree its iconic shape and name.
This large multi-stemmed woody shrub or small tree grows to 15-30 feet and adapts to many landscapes, from poor soils to polluted inner city landscapes. While the smoke tree genus includes seven distinct species, the most common are the North American native smoke tree (Cotinus obovatus) and the non-native European smoke tree (Cotinus coggygria). Both species offer unique varieties and attributes and thrive with similar care.
With proper site selection and moderate maintenance, these striking hazy-hued trees are perfect for borders, woodlands, and individual specimen plantings. Let’s dig into everything you need to know about this lovely ornamental.
Smoke trees, sometimes called smoke bushes, mist trees, or cloud trees, are a group of large flowering shrubs or small trees in the Cotinus genus. The genus includes seven unique species, all sharing the distinctive wispy, airy-looking flowers that add exceptional fall color to the garden. When in bloom, the small trees look like billows of hazy smoke.
The iconic ornamental smoke tree has two main origins: America and Eurasia. The most commonly landscaped tree comes from southern Europe and central China, but a related species is native to Eastern North America.
All members of the Cotinus genus have the signature fluffy, smoke-like dried flower clusters. They are known for their magnificently vibrant fall leaves and the fish-scaled appearance of their bark that stands out in the winter. In North America, the heartwood of the smoke tree was traditionally used by Natives as a yellow or orange dye.
The common smoke tree, Cotinus coggygria, is native to Eurasia and widely cultivated as a landscape plant in the United States. This species was introduced as early as 1656 and remains commonly available in most mainstream nurseries around the country.
Plant breeders have developed dozens of colorful cultivars with leaf shades ranging from golden, green, and purple, and flowers in hues of pink, mauve, red, purple, and bronze. Most cultivars transform to stunning hues of yellow, orange, or red in the autumn. The Eurasian species is dioecious, meaning male and female plant parts grow on the same tree. The smoke display is the same for both male and female flowers.
The American smoke tree, Cotinus obovatus, is native to the United States and grows wild in rocky soils from central Texas to Tennessee. It is more cold hardy and larger in stature than the Eurasian species, but its flowers tend to be smaller and less showy. The American species is also dioecious, which means there are separate male and female trees. The male plants have a “smokier” appearance.
Stem cuttings are the cheapest way to propagate smoke trees, but they can also be grown from bare-root trees or seeds.