Cotinus coggygria Lilla - Smoke Bush

Cotinus coggygria 'Lilla' is the dwarf version of the beautiful Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple'. It was recently obtained in Hungary. Endowed with the same ornamental qualities and just as easy to grow, its modest size makes it accessible to all small spaces, as well as for ornamenting a terrace or balcony. Charming cloud-like panicles in shades of purple and smoke form above its finely edged purple foliage. Its foliage also takes on warm scarlet hues in autumn. Truly comfortable under most of our climates, even the harshest, it will be more colourful in the sun, and more floriferous in poor, chalky and dry soil.

Cotinus coggygria, also known as the smoke bush, belongs to the Anacardiaceae family, native to southern Europe and Asia. In nature, it grows on rocky hillsides, on poor soils, in dry climates. The 'Lilla' variety, born in 2010, stands out for its very compact habit and its dark purple-violet foliage. It reaches a maximum height of 1.25 m (4.1 ft) with a spread of 90 cm (35.4 in). On average, it reaches 1 m (3.3 ft) tall by 75 cm (29.5 in) wide at maturity. Cotinus coggygria 'Lilla' develops a very compact habit, which can be maintained by pruning it quite short at the end of winter. In June, it produces panicles of small yellow-green flowers, whose pedicels elongate to form a long panicle of fruit covered with hairs. The inflorescence then takes on a pinkish-purple, slightly smoky, feathery appearance, which has earned this species its name of wig tree. Its small deciduous ovate leaves appear from April onwards, and change colour throughout the season. In autumn, both panicles and foliage take on sumptuous colours, ranging from orange to dark pink and scarlet red.  

Truly easy to grow and extremely undemanding, 'Lilla' appreciates well-draining, poor, light and chalky soils and only fears sea spray. Once established, it tolerates drought but does not tolerate excessive humidity in winter, especially in heavy soils. Like deciduous euonymus, it is very useful for brightening up small free hedges or low evergreen shrub borders such as boxwoods, escallonias, or dwarf buddleias. Its dark foliage creates interesting contrasts with shrubs with grey foliage (Great mugworts, Buddleia 'Silver Anniversary', Gomphostigma virgatum 'White Candy)', bluish foliage (Eucalyptus gunii), yellow foliage (Phyllostachys aurea, Sambucus nigra 'Golden Tower'), or even the variegated pink foliage of the shrimp plant (in cooler soil). You can also cultivate it in a large container on a terrace, accompanied by blue flowers (Ceratostigma griffithii or C. willmottianum, for example), or pink flowers (Pink valerian, Salvia 'Pink Beauty', Alcea 'Parkrondell').