If this is hard pruned every year, how big would an established plant be expected to grow? I love the foliage but I'm trying to plan where it could go/if I have room for it.
Ours grew 3-4 metres + x 2 metres + wide every year from a hard pruning in late spring. Long branches could grow 1-2 metres in a matter of months and had to be continually hacked back. We had it taken out earlier this year. As you say, the leaves are lovely and it looked spectacular in autumn but too much work. If you've got lots of space, it would be okay. Another similar shrub but more manageable is a physocarpus opulus 'Diablo'.
I have this shrub but have hardly ever pruned it. It's 6-8 years old and roughly 2m x 2m. I has to compete with a hornbeam hedge on one side and a large cherry tree the other so this could account for it not getting as big as Lizzie27's. Having also grown 'Grace' I would say cotinus appear to be over-stimulated by pruning.
A lot will depend on its location as Rachel’s post shows. We inherited one here and its never grown taller than It’s size when we arrived. Maybe 70cm hgh and a sprawly 1.2m wide. It is of course in completely the wrong place - very shaded by a beech tree and lilac hedge and competing on a dry bank with a ivy and ferns. It never flowers but the leaf colour works beautifully with all the greens around it.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
Thank you @Butterfly66 I have an area of the garden I could try, it gets some morning sun, otherwise shade although the position is open to the sky. Maybe as it is not the preferred full sun it might not grow so rampantly. I could try it and if it looks to be going for world domination, remove it. Flowers I can take or leave.
Just coppice it early every spring ... that’ll keep it a reasonable size ... if it gets a bit rampant tell flower arranging friends to help themselves. 😊
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I love it ... I keep trying to find a place for one in this garden ... maybe one of the big grasses will have to go. By the way, don’t make the mistake of planting it under a branch used by pigeons to roost ... purple splattered with white isn’t a good look 🙄
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Mine hasn’t grown very much, though I want it to, it’s never been pruned as it’s never got big enough. I water it well and regularly, but has put on more growth this year as we have had a huge amount of rain. I wonder if it doesn’t like my very hard water. It’s in mostly shade as I tried one in a sunny spot and it fried, so I concur with the location thing! Worth a go for that gorgeous foliage.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
So many pigeons here...it's like a pigeon sanctuary. Thankfully where the Cotinus would go is pigeon-free. Got some fresh pigeon poo on my leg the other day...that was nice
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Another similar shrub but more manageable is a physocarpus opulus 'Diablo'.
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
By the way, don’t make the mistake of planting it under a branch used by pigeons to roost ... purple splattered with white isn’t a good look 🙄
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
So many pigeons here...it's like a pigeon sanctuary. Thankfully where the Cotinus would go is pigeon-free. Got some fresh pigeon poo on my leg the other day...that was nice