I have tried everything with 'Grace'. I have coppiced it when dormant, coppiced it when in leaf, tip-pruned it when dormant, tip-pruned it when in leaf, pruned in late spring, pruned in mid-summer, etc etc. It is a cross between C. coggyggria and C. obovatus and the latter is a TREE, as in big. 'Grace', for all of its beautifully large leaves and incredible fall color, is not an attractive plant. I started with about 5-6 of them (I have a large garden) and I'm down to three. I am going to give them this year to see if I can maintain one as a shrub form (I coppiced it near ground level and will continue to work on it during the growing season) and the other two as tree forms. My friends have no better luck. I think that they work ok in very large shrub borders or woodland gardens. But as a typical garden citizen, nope!

If this plant is happy you will never be able to contain it (as a shrub) long term unless you prune it hard early spring and then cut it back again mid summer.

What ends up happening as the plant matures and puts out more root mass is it will put out aggressive growth as lateral buds and the stems become too heavy and snap off the old wood if you don't prune mid season. Mine grew to about 10' one season.

If you want to spend the time on the plant it is a nice contrast to see the older blue green foliage with the new emerging purple foliage throughout the year.

Wow!! I'm surprised to see these comments. 'Grace' is a favored plant in this area and in my business I encounter any number of them. Most look fine.

I will say that it is a larger shrub - can reach 20'x20' over time - and looks its best if left unpruned. It is the consistent pruning that creates the long, leggy branching with leaves just at the tips (a common problem with any smokebush). That will also cause the soft, unripened wood production that is easily broken or bent. Unpruned forms will develop to be full and dense. Young or juvenile plants do need some time to settle in and mature before they start looking good, though.

I wonder if your climate slows it down due to tougher winters? I am at my wits end with it - I can easily get 15' in one season, curling back on itself, with leaves only on the last 2' or so. Horrible. And if I had only had experience with one, I might think that it was an anomaly. But I put in 5-6 about 6-7 years ago (not all at once, not all from the same source; I went back and checked, thinking that there was a freak strain out there!) and they have all behaved exactly the same way. I wouldn't mind it getting big, I have the space. It's the form that I can't stand. I have tried everything from not pruning to pruning severely to everything in between. I took out two this winter. There are three left. Their days may be numbered...

You have to prune them (Continus in general) to keep them bushy otherwise they become leggy and unkempt around here.

Here is a pic of one that was pruned twice in a season. Once to the ground and selective early summer.

That Maackia to the right was about 10' tall for perspective.

Thanks for all the advice. My challenge is that my Cotinus is a tree with a single stem. It came from the nursery that way with an already substantial trunk. So I can’t really cut it all the way back. The original photos I posted look fuzzy. Here’s what it looks like right now.

None of your pictures are showing. Use the photo icon below the message box to insert them.

floral, it may be your browser. All the photos show up for me.

Plant is half American smoke-tree, which grows 50 ft. tall. Clones of 'Royal Purple' on the market here seem to be slow-growing, maybe that is what some should be using instead of 'Grace'.

As mentioned lopping a vigorous Cotinus back is the perfect way to turn it into a bunch of long, whip-like shoots. If it wasn't growing those already, it will definitely start producing them after being cut back hard.

I think these are only temporariy a tree around here.

I had one years ago and it behaved as the OP stated. Not only that, it was subject to splitting and breaking under heavy rain and high wind. I no longer have it...

I see the pictures now. No change of browser. Some mid Atlantic glitch.

I cut mine in desperation after it produced those shoots on its own. I have a Cotinus obovatus, and it is indeed a tree, but does not have the ungainly growth habit of 'Grace'. She somehow came up with that herself. 'Royal Purple' is a much better behaved selection, its foliage just isn't as showy as 'Grace'.

The true 'Royal Purple' (I have been seedlings of varying quality sold under the name, same as with 'Blood-good' Japanese maple and 'Palace Purple' heuchera) is much more purple than 'Grace'.

Often when shrubs of various kinds "over-grow" in cultivated settings they are getting too much water.