- Type:
- Deciduous shrub
- USDA hardiness zones:
- 5-8
This smoketree (sometimes also commonly called European smoketree) is a deciduous, upright, loose-spreading, multi-stemmed shrub that typically grows 10-15 tall and as wide. Smoketree gets its common name not from the tiny, insignificant, yellowish flowers which appear in branching, 6-8î long, terminal panicles in spring, but from the billowy hairs (attached to elongated stalks on the spent flower clusters) which turn a smokey pink to purplish pink in summer, thus covering the tree with fluffy, hazy, smoke-like puffs. Bluish-green leaves (to 3î long) are ovate to obovate. Several attractive ... more »
- Full sun
- Medium
- Medium
Easily grown in average, medium, well-drained soils in full sun. Tolerates wide range of soils except wet, poorly-drained ones. Prefers somewhat infertile loams, but also does well in poor, rocky soils. Good drainage is essential, however. Shallow fibrous root system. If bloom is not a concern, stems may be cut back hard in early spring each year to a framework to induce growth of vigorous new shoots with slightly larger than normal leaves. Such hard annual prunings will control size, but most likely at the expense of profuse flowering. Hard pruning is more often done on the purple-leaved cultivars (e.g., see ëVelvet Cloak ñ A360).
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