Re: Cotinus OK in Spain?

 I live near Valencia in Eastern Spain
> about 15 km inland on the brow of a little hill. The soil in my garden
> is fairly poor, and we almost always have a breeze, or more.
> I have a problem: some friends, when I moved in gave me a present, a 3
> metre Cotinus Coryggia (I think) also known as Royal Purple. I'm from
> England originally, and there they call it a Smoke tree. My first
> reaction was that it was not very appropriate for this climate, and that
> it might suffer, but, gift horses are gift horses, and I planted it in
> the most sheltered part of the garden next a wall and in the lowest
> section. Three months later it is suffering, after a good start the
> first month with a lot of new shoots, the older leaves have grown
> progressively browner from the edges and some are now completely dry.
> The younger shoots remain more or less healthy. But the tree looks
> pretty sorry.
> Has anyone experience with this tree or this problem. Any ideas?

We grow it successfully here in the wet West of England, which must
provide some clues. My suggestions are firstly the plants were too large
to re-establish successfully (you don't say whether they were
containerised or not) and they couldn't put out enough fresh roots to
sustain themselves as the weather became progressively more summery and
this problem would be compounded by being beside a wall (on the wet or
dry side?) Also they seem to be woodland plants and would like some nice
damp humus-rich soil. That said, my Hillier manual says that they grow
from Southern Europe to China via the Himalayas  and so success must
depend on the strain of plant that you have. Since they originally came
from England, it might be worth putting them in the middle of a group of
other shrubs in the wettest part of your garden, out of the wind and
giving them a generous dollop of fertilizer.....but don't try moving
them until the weather changes later in the year. We always start ours
from our own seed in the shadow house (what I believe is referred to as
a "shade hall" in parts of the USA) with loads of fertilizer. The
yearlings have now been out in full sun, in litre pots with a minimum of
water for the last two weeks and look amazingly good on it.
Experimentation is everything!
Good luck
Anthony
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