Pruning cotinus
The smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria) is one of my favourite shrubs. It has soft oval leaves in various bright and subtle colours, and sports frothy plumes of tiny flowers in summer that resemble billowing smoke, hence its common name. Its autumn leaf colour is remarkable too, turning rich red once the weather turns cold. These shrubs are generally fairly well behaved and a light trim will keep them in shape. But if they get too big, they respond well to hard pruning down to a stump in winter. Known as rejuvenation pruning, this encourages new vertical shoots that will carry larger leaves for the coming season.