Lakeshore Garden Centres Plant Finder

Other Names:  Smoketree

Brand:  Proven Winners

Description:

A highly floriferous shrub or small tree for garden use, featuring blue-green leaves with burgundy fall colors, red-pink flowers and inflorescences give a fuzzy, smoky appearance for weeks in summer; a fantastic hedge or specimen

Ornamental Features

The Velvet Fog® Smokebush features airy panicles of pink flowers with red overtones at the ends of the branches from early to mid summer. It has attractive bluish-green foliage with light green undersides which emerges red in spring. The oval leaves are highly ornamental and turn outstanding shades of burgundy and in the fall.

Landscape Attributes

The Velvet Fog® Smokebush is a multi-stemmed deciduous shrub with an upright spreading habit of growth. Its average texture blends into the landscape, but can be balanced by one or two finer or coarser trees or shrubs for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance shrub, and is best pruned in late winter once the threat of extreme cold has passed. Deer don't particularly care for this plant and will usually leave it alone in favor of tastier treats. It has no significant negative characteristics.

The Velvet Fog® Smokebush is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Mass Planting
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use

Planting & Growing

The Velvet Fog® Smokebush will grow to be about 8 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 6 feet. It tends to be a little leggy, with a typical clearance of 1 foot from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 40 years or more.

This shrub should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. This plant will benefit from an application of bonemeal and/or mycorrhizal fertilizer at the time of planting. It is not particular as to soil type or pH. It is highly tolerant of urban pollution and will even thrive in inner city environments, and will benefit from being planted in a relatively sheltered location. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America.

This plant is not reliably hardy in our region, and certain restrictions may apply; contact the store for more information.