You may well have seen massive specimens of the Smoke Bush in gardens around the UK. Once you’ve seen them, they’re hard to forget, firstly for the rich wine colour of their leaves, and secondly for their dreamy effect when in flower. Luckily we now have ‘Lilla’, a smaller, more compact and bushy version of the larger shrub, which can be easily grown in a pot. 

‘Lilla’ has large oval leaves that are a dark plummy purple turning red, orange and yellow over autumn. Adding to this celebration of colour, is a summer display of flowers that give the shrub its commonly used nickname, the Smoke Bush. While the flowers themselves are pretty insignificant, they appear en-mass on what is called an inflorescence (a cluster of flowers on a branching stem). It is this structure together with the sheer quantity of blooms, that gives the whole shrub a soft, delicate, feathery and even, smokey, appearance. You really just want to touch it, and in fact, we encourage you. 

Having flowered over summer and given you an autumn send-off, the Smoke Bush will lose its leaves and enter a period of rest, or dormancy, over Winter. You don’t need to do anything but wait until it starts putting on new leaves in Spring. If your plant is exposed to rainfall you shouldn’t need to water it except in long hot dry summers, but if it’s undercover, give it a regular drink all year round. Cotinus will struggle being too wet or too dry, and this may affect the colour of their leaves and their flowering. 

Did you know?

The wood of Continus was once used to make a bright yellow dye. This has been replaced by synthetic alternatives, but that doesn’t take away from the magic hidden beneath the skin of this common garden plant.