Cotinus coggygria
A pink-mauve smoke cloud enveloping the silhouette in summer — Cotinus coggygria is one of the most spectacular and least common shrubs in the bonsai collection.
What makes it unique. What resembles a vaporous puff of smoke is not the foliage but the elongated, threadlike, fluffy flower stalks that persist after the June flowering through to September, creating an extraordinary visual effect. The flowers themselves are tiny and yellow-green — it is their persistent feathering that creates the spectacle. In autumn, Cotinus coggygria puts on some of the most intense colours of all outdoor bonsai — orange, bright red, purple depending on the specimen. The round to oval, glaucous, blue-green leaves in summer contribute to the visual originality of the tree throughout the season.
Origin. Native to the garrigue and rocky edges of southern Europe through to central Asia and China, Cotinus coggygria grows in poor, well-drained soils under intense sun. Belonging to the Anacardiaceae family — the same as the cashew and pistachio — it contains resins that can cause skin irritation in sensitive individuals during pruning.
A bonsai for lovers of character. Working it as a bonsai requires understanding its cycle: the "smoke" effect forms on the current year's growth and disappears if those shoots are pruned after their spring emergence. In exchange for a little strategy, it offers two spectacular seasons in one — summer and autumn.
A pink-mauve smoke cloud enveloping the silhouette in summer — Cotinus coggygria is one of the most spectacular and least common shrubs in the bonsai collection.
What makes it unique. What resembles a vaporous puff of smoke is not the foliage but the elongated, threadlike, fluffy flower stalks that persist after the June flowering through to September, creating an extraordinary visual effect. The flowers themselves are tiny and yellow-green — it is their persistent feathering that creates the spectacle. In autumn, Cotinus coggygria puts on some of the most intense colours of all outdoor bonsai — orange, bright red, purple depending on the specimen. The round to oval, glaucous, blue-green leaves in summer contribute to the visual originality of the tree throughout the season.
Origin. Native to the garrigue and rocky edges of southern Europe through to central Asia and China, Cotinus coggygria grows in poor, well-drained soils under intense sun. Belonging to the Anacardiaceae family — the same as the cashew and pistachio — it contains resins that can cause skin irritation in sensitive individuals during pruning.
A bonsai for lovers of character. Working it as a bonsai requires understanding its cycle: the "smoke" effect forms on the current year's growth and disappears if those shoots are pruned after their spring emergence. In exchange for a little strategy, it offers two spectacular seasons in one — summer and autumn.