After touring some beautiful local gardens a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about  the beauty of the golden spirit smoke tree — Cotinus golden spirit —  I’d seen. These can be grown either as bushes or trees.

While hooking up the soaker hose along the north side of the house to water shrubs in this July heat, I discovered we have a golden spirit smoke bush here at Coppertop! Not sure how I missed this, since we’ve been in the house six months now, and this tree/shrub must have leafed out a few months ago. It is planted right next to a typical, maroon-red or purple smoke tree, Cotinus coggygria, and I love the contrast.

From the Portland Nursery website: “Autumn foliage turns electrifying shades of coral, orange and red, more varied and tonal than purple-leaf Cotinus. A fireworks display from season to season.”  Now that’s something to look forward to!