Pruning Cotinus (smoke bush)

Our cotinus has a number of branches growing horizontally from near the base which have produced leaves and flowers normally. Meanwhile all but one of the branches which are growing vertically have produced no leaves or flowers this year and look rather lifeless. Last year it did something similar but then in late spring the vertical branches started to produce buds and it came back to life. No sign of that happening this year.


Recently however we have noticed some new shoots coming from low down on the main branches.


So some pruning advice please:

Would it be safe to cut off the dead wood now?
If so should I cut back to just above the new shoots?
Should I cut out the horizontal shoots at ground level to restore its shape and divert energy back to vertical growth?
If so when should I do this?

Thanks in advance.

 

this is one shrub I hate pruning , will it wont it regrow .... hopefully I will learn something from this thread

 

Check that the brown branches really are dead by scratching the bark with your thumbnail. if it's brown underneath the branch might as well be cut away. if green, wait a little longer. Although cotinus is one of the later shrubs to leaf out it should be out by now! So it doesn't sound good.

I prune hard in late winter because I would rather have good foliage on a compact shrub than the flowers on a large shrub. It's always come back - so far, albeit slowly. I try not to go right back into old wood.

 

Snap!

I did move a vast one, and cut it right back, and it broke-buds from the old wood ... but it was never very happy thereafter. But it was Old & Big at the time.

Either way, take some cuttings this year in case its time is up?

 

I'm having exactly the same issues HsuH. I pruned mine back hard at the end of March, but without cutting into old wood, mainly because it still had lots of leaves which seemed to have some sort of fungal disease (http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/sickly-cotinus-leaves.56588/). It's now producing lots of new healthy leaves everywhere except on the highest parts of the oldest branches. So I don't know whether to cut these branches back to the new growth or just leave them. Interestingly they seem to be the branches which bore most of the sickly leaves.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll check those dead-looking branches later and do some pruning.

But since the plant didn't grow properly in spring for 2 consecutive years, the shape of it is just awful so I'd quite like to start again from cuttings. @Kristen, do you have an idiot's guide on how to do this?

 

Same as the Hydrangeas / Fuchsias. Time-of-the-year to do it is the only thing to need to look up, to maximise success.

 

I have never managed to strike cotinus cuttings successfully. Is there a magic secret?

 

Softwood cuttings are best, I read some research that suggests pinching out the tips, to force several new soft stems and then use those for cuttings. Best to do that pronto or it will be getting late!

 

While doing a bit of bark scraping to assess whether stems were dead or not, I noticed that one of the lifeless looking branches has some new buds quite near the top!!

I don't understand this plant at all

I'm going to take some cuttings today and see how I get on. I'm also going to "borrow" a couple of cuttings from a neighbour's red-leaved cotinus and try those as well.

Although I'm doing this as a bit of a challenge, I didn't actually want a cotinus in the first place. I'd ordered a chimonanthus from a mail order supplier and grew it for a couple of years before it was big enough to be sure it wasn't what I'd ordered by which time it was too late to demand a refund/replacement. I don't use that supplier anymore.

If more than one of these cuttings works then I don't know where they will go!

 

I managed to do it once by pulling up low branches which had grown along the ground and started rooting and potting them up.