Cotinus, European Smoke Tree, Purple Smoke Tree 'Velvet Cloak'

A superb shrub for its burgundy leaf color, which shines like stained glass when back-lit by the sun.

Adaptable, easy, an...Read Mored vigorous where happy. Requires good drainage. Performs best in full sun but will tolerate part shade.

Uniquely versatile in its shape---can be coppiced or pollarded or grown as a standard, or you can change your mind and transform it through hard pruning in early spring, once it's been in the ground at least 3 years (time enough for the root system to develop). Spring-pruned stems will not flower or "smoke", but I think that's a small loss.

The flowers are yellow, but they're small and not very showy. The hairy infructescences constitute the pinkish purple "smoke".

Propagated by rooting cuttings. Seed-propagated plants do not come true.

Some people may react to the sap with a dermatitis, but this species does not have spines or sharp edges, nor it it toxic by ingestion. http://ucanr.edu/sites/poisonous_safe_plants/Toxic_Plants_by...

Dirr believes that 'Velvet Cloak' and 'Royal Purple' may be the same plant.

I planted the tree in 2010 and I have not seen any type of flowering or plumes since then

Have a Velvet Cloak near the terrasse since more than 10 years. Could it be that it does distant gnats and flies ?
It seems so....Read More /> Interested to hear similar experiance!.