Ha! This is one I hadn't thought of! Yours has a green leaf. Mine has a purple leaf. However, yours appears to be in a good deal of shade. But I recognize those flower heads anywhere! It is called a smoke tree or a smoke bush.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/shrubselector/
detail_plant.cfm?PlantID=378
Smoke bushes will tolerate almost any growing condition except soggy soil. From the look of the first picture, your's probably would have more yellow leaves if it had more sun. Usually colorful leaves turn green when there isn't enough sun for the plant to photosimophise the pigment. However there is also a green variety of the smoke bush. The website suggests the most common colors but green is also listed. I have seen green smoke bushes as well.
Those spikes of tiny little knobs are the flowers and will become the smoke eventually. The open flowers are a very tiny yellow and don't really appear noticeable. But it's after the flowers when you want to watch the plant. The tiny flowers fade and the spikes get hairy giving the plant a smoky appearance. I have noticed that these plants, without full sun may take a few years to begin blooming. But your's looks like it will bloom this year.
Watch your plant this year. Those little stems of knobs should open to tiny yellow flowers and after that the stem should become very hairy looking causing the bush to appear to be smoking from a distance.
You say the bush is now 3' but grow slowly and can get 10'x10' and the older they are, the more smoke they get. They can be trained into a small tree or kept as a bush. I have mine as a bush. They are very interesting and quite the conversation piece, especially in July when the smoke appears.
To prune it use a by-pass pruners and just shape the plant a little early fall after it blooms. Don't do a lot of prunning on it - smoke bushes usually don't need a lot of attention. Just shape it a little if it needs it.
Watch the plant closely this year and see if those little flower spikes do what I say they will do. I'd be curious to know if I got this one right.
I wanted to know your area because it gives me an idea of what zone you live in and if the plant I see is what I think it is or if I should head back to the internet to see if there's another plant similar to what I suspect. I'm guessing you are in zone 5 or maybe the higher parts of zone 6 both of which are a good zone for the smoke bush. But it wasn't my first thought when I saw the first picture.
Enjoy your bush. They are wonderful plants.
Post edited by: Julie, at: 2008/05/21 11:53
