I found a cheap ugly Cotinus coggygria – Purple Smoke Bush at the Lowes store in Castle Rock, Colorado in the end of the year get rid of them sale. The tree was ugly, there were hardly any branches on it. The main trunk had shari running up and down the trunk. It did have some nice nebari on it. I bought ($5) it and brought it home and placed the tree in a gravel bunker. The tree stayed in that bunker for years with out anything being done to it. The tree grew very tall and the trunk thickened up a lot. The deadwood on the trunk was completely covered by new bark so no more shari! Mother nature decided to start training the tree by dumping heavy wet snow on the tree and mother nature snapped the trunk right off the tree. My 6-7 foot tree was now about 13 inches tall. I dug the tree out of the bunker and had to cut off all the roots that grew out of the drainage hole. Not a big deal just take a saw and cut them off right at the hole. The tree was now placed on the east side of the house and fertilized with an organic fertilizer for several years and the tree put out new branches. The trunk developed mature bark and so did the nebari. The tree was even blooming now and people kept asking about it. I styled the tree in the spring of 2019 and put it back in its favorite spot in the front yard. The tree grew pretty good and the branches were starting to show wire marks. So in Feb. 29 2020 I removed all the wires and restyled the tree using a lot of new branches and cut others off the tree. It is easy to damage the branches on this Smoke Bush by bending the branches in the wrong spot. The tree was being worked on in my living room along with a couple other trees. I completed the wiring and moved the tree back out to the garage for the rest of the winter. This tree is going to be on the shorter side with a big trunk, nebari and purple foliage. In the spring I might even try to reduce some of the soil. The plastic pot it is in is starting to fall apart. I will start trying to ramify the tree this year(2020). Insects do not seem to bother this tree. Fall color is really great to. The tree does have a small dead trunk originating from the base of the tree and another small dead trunk a little further up the trunk. I may break these dead trunks off sometime in the future.
New 07-17-2020:
Wow a big difference in a tree 4 months can make. The tree was put out on top of a growing bench and watered and fertilized with Plant Tone. The tree had leafed and seemed to be growing nicely. Along comes a major thunderstorm and hits the tree with hundreds of small hail stones, along with all the other unprotected trees. Well this Purple Smoke Bush responded back with new branches everywhere! Hundreds of new branches, well I think there are hundreds, I must admit not to have counted them. Small branches with equally small leaves. Its mind boggling to me how the tree has responded. The only thing I have done since then is to move some of the branches back into place. I plan on raising the apex some more. I would love to say it took special planning on my part to get the tree to ramify but that would be a big lie! I don’t care how it happened, I am just so pleased with this tree right now I could jump from here to the top of Pikes Peak in one leap! Right now the tree is under 30% shade cloth and temps have been in the mid to high 90’s and tree is doing well. Might start to reduce the soil on the tree next spring. I have told several Bonsai friends I am the luckiest Bonsai person in the world.
Gallery 07-17-2020:
Gallery 02-29-2020:
