I recently took possession of a home that I had purchased back in the spring and hadn't had a chance to snoop around in the garden since. I've been delighted to find a beautiful smoke bush blooming in all of its glory - wow! The only problem is, it has completely overgrown the area it was planted in and is now obstructing a path and the other plants around it. I'm thinking in February or so I'll have to heavily prune it back, possibly to the ground. By doing this - will it bloom that summer still? And then what's the best way to control the voracious growth that season so I don't end up right back where I started again??
Sorry, it looks like your thread got somehow overlooked. Welcome to the forum! Smoke bush blooms on old wood, so you will have to wait for a couple of years to see it flower again. In the following years after coppicing prune it selectively to maintain desired shape and size.
Try a selective pruning, take 1/3 of the branches / trunks to the base, cut the rest to 3 feet or so, you will get some bloom then in the following year, prune the stems that were left the first time and reduce the new stems to a manageable size
Others online have been hot about pruning this shrub down to near the ground, growing it as a foliage plant but my experience with hard pruning of these is that they came back all goofy looking, with curved shoots that appear to be writhing around like the snakes on Medusa's head - not a pleasant effect at all. And yes, yours will forever be trying to restore its present size.
