Before I decided to make different areas of our arboretum into different regions of the world, I planted stuff helter skelter as I came across "good deals". One of those good deals was a raft of seedling Smoke Bushes... no guarantees that they would turn purple but they were very cheap if I took all of them. So I did. And planted them everywhere in the arboretum except the western U.S. with its towering pines and sequoias.
Then I forgot about them. The arboretum evolved into Japan, China, Europe, etc., all of it, or most of it, invaded by little smoke bushes that grew in spite of lack of care. Now, many years later, they are still surviving and providing a wide range of colors as they poke their way through tall grasses. Some are the proper purple, others are green, but most all turn colorful in the fall.
Today, October 1st, 2018, I decided to take photos of all of them and give them an entry all their own. So here they are, the long neglected and unheralded Fink Family Farm Arboretum Smoke Bushes, Cotinus coggygria.
