By moving the furniture around, separating a sectional sofa to facilitate distancing, and rustling up enough side tables for each individual meal, I was able to host the first indoor potluck gathering of five in my long living room.
We鈥檇 been able to meet for a meal twice during the summer, in the garden. Indoors, we wore masks except while eating. As in the summer, we each brought just our own meal, plate, utensils and beverage.
One of the women had just celebrated a significant birthday. She brought me a segment of a big bouquet she鈥檇 been given.
The main arrangement must have been stunning. My 鈥渟ampler鈥� included lovely white Alstroemeria (Peruvian lily), gerbera, goldenrod, orange Carthamus (safflower, false saffron), a spray of lime green 鈥渂utton鈥� (pompom) mums and purple smoke bush foliage as an effective filler and 鈥渂ackdrop鈥� for the blooms.
Oddly enough, that afternoon, I鈥檇 decided to gather a few stems from the garden for a simple arrangement of mainly foliage to set at one end of the living room for the potluck evening. I chose foliage from my smoke bush, with just a few hardy fuchsia stems bearing slim white flowers added.
I set the stems in a rounded pottery vase, a gift from an old friend whose funeral I had attended earlier in the week. It seemed a fitting way to honour him.
Low-care, trouble-free. As I selected a few stems to clip from my purple smoke bush, it occurred to me that this tall shrub had been part of the landscape for so long, and required so little care, that it was easy to take for granted. Yet, every year, for decades, the plant has re-clothed itself in fresh, deep rosy-purple leaves, pushed out fine sprays of flowers like pinkish-bronze puffs of smoke in summer, and put on a spectacular fall show of blazing orange, yellow and burgundy foliage.
I thought also of all the mail I鈥檇 received over the years about this plant, mostly about pruning, with some regarding a mysterious wilting.
My smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria) has been superbly problem-free, perhaps because of its location. The shrub grows against a side fence in a small bed between the back lawn and the greenhouse. The long-established shrub is hardly ever watered.
Like almost all plants, Cotinus needs regular watering in dry weather while it establishes itself in a garden. That鈥檚 for the first year or two. After that, the shrub will be very drought-tolerant. I suspect it is one of those shrubs and trees, like some dogwoods and flowering plum and cherry trees, that tend to sicken when they are watered often.
I think that鈥檚 the reason my flowering cherry and flowering plum trees, like the smoke bush, have grown and bloomed without problem for decades. They all grow at the edges of the garden that receive very modest amounts of water in summer.
Cotinus plants require little or no pruning. They are usually fine left to develop their naturally upright, loosely bushy-oval shape as a shrub or small tree. If broken or awkwardly placed growth is noticed, it can be removed in late winter or early spring. Stems and branches that extend outside an otherwise pleasing outline of the plant can be shortened to conform. I do this minimal pruning only every few years.
Gardeners who prefer a neat, tailored look in their shrubs may wish to prune a little more, to keep the plant trimmed to a precisely symmetrical shape.
Another, extreme method of smoke tree pruning is to cut the plant back near to the ground each year in order to produce fresh stems bearing large leaves that are prized in floral arrangements.
VRS meeting. The Victoria Rhododendron Society will meet on Monday, Nov. 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich. Jeff DeJong will talk about perennials. Members wishing to attend are asked to call 250-478-6615 or email [email protected] with the number of people in the family planning to attend. Attendance is limited because of physical distancing. You will be notified that you are scheduled to attend. Masks are mandatory at meetings, and a distance of two metres must be maintained between people not of the same household.
