Northwest Blooms · Shrubs
Cotinus coggygria ‘Young Lady’
Young Lady Smoke Bush
- Family
- Anacardiaceae
- Height
- 4 to 6 feet
- Width
- 4 to 6 feet
- Flower color
- Pinkish-beige, appearing as fluffy "smoke-like" plumes
- Foliage color
- Green, turning orange-red in fall
- Bloom time
- Early summer to late summer
- Light
- Full sun
- Water
- Low to moderate
- Maintenance
- Low
- Growing zone
- USDA zones 5 to 8
- Wildlife
- Attracts pollinators, including bees and butterflies
About this plant
Cotinus coggygria 'Young Lady' produces airy panicles of tiny yellow flowers from late spring into summer, followed by feathery pink to mauve hairs that envelop the shrub in soft, smoky clouds. Rounded to oval leaves are medium green throughout the growing season before developing warm shades of yellow, orange, and red in autumn. Abundant flower panicles appear even on young plants, creating a prolonged, billowing display that often nearly obscures the foliage.
Selected by Kolster Nurseries in the Netherlands, this cultivar was introduced for its prolific flowering and compact, rounded habit. Its soft-textured flower plumes and colorful autumn foliage make it well suited to mixed shrub borders, cottage gardens, specimen plantings, informal hedges, and mass plantings, where it provides an airy focal point from summer through fall.
Works well in
Sun Gardens · Specimen Plants · Borders · Pollinator Gardens
Companion plants
Tickseed · Russian sage · Potentilla · Fountain grass · Basket-of-gold · Lily of the Nile
Design tip
Billowing pinkish-white plumes give this compact smokebush an unusually soft presence for a shrub of its size. Echoing that airy texture with fine grasses nearby creates a graceful summer composition, while contrasting rounded foliage keeps the planting from becoming visually wispy or indistinct.
Where to see it
This plant can be seen at the Bellevue Botanical Garden.
