the key to pruning.. is stating a goal ... and its because you have no goal.. that you are wondering why you need to prune ...

so... ask yourself... why will it need to be pruned ...

if you planted it out in the lawn ... in theory.. it will never need pruning... as a specimen plant ...

if you planted it 2 feet from the house. .. well.. i suppose your goal. will be to keep it off the house ... and out of the eaves ...

dwarf basically means it has a slower annual growth rate ... than a non dwarf plant ... but that doesnt really mean... it will ever stop growing... its just going to take more years/decades ..... before it gets too big.. lol ...

none of us.. prune.. simply for the sake of pruning ... we try to see the future ... and prune accordingly ... here is your future.. do note they arent all your plant :

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=WINECRAFT+BLACK+SMOKEBUSH&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Winecraft+Black+Cotinus+coggygria+%27NCCO1%27.&t=ffcm&iax=images&ia=images

if you can post a pic of the more general area.. we may be able to offer some suggestions as to where your goals may lie ...

all that said.. i have to think ... but for damage ... its going to be 3 to 5 years.. before you need to prune anything ... [we always remove broken parts]

ken

ps: id probably get the grass out from under it.. it isnt going to be easier.. when the plant gets larger ...

Thanks! Here you go Ken...

it will probably be a few years.. to mature the root mass.. before you might see a flowering ... its just an age thing..

and during that time... there isnt much you need to do ...

any micro climate will dictate your experience with the plant ... and you really dont know about that ... until you go thru a couple winters ... in other words ... dont cut it down based on lacey's experience ....

and if it takes winter damage... we can discuss that in late spring ...

dont worry about it.. if it ends up buried in snow ... thats not the issue ...

it might be a bit close to the fence .. but i suspect you dont have a lot of yard to waste on it ... if you could move it 2 or 3 feet further away from the fence ... it might be better off.. fall would probably be a good time to do that.. if not early spring .... might depend on your relations with the neighbor ....

ken

@laceyvail 6A, WV "Just to say, even where I am in zone 6A, purple smokes experience so much winter die back that they generally do best as cut back shrubs."

Odd...in my 5b (NE end of Lake Ontario), it is a reliable small tree. Do local Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus syriacus) grow well?

Yes, Rose of Sharon grow very well here.

Interesting...Rose of Sharon is borderline enough for us that the variability seed grown plants ranges between branch die-back in most winters to hardly ever has branch die-back. Wonder what the environmental conditions are that have those two species switching in relative hardiness between you and I?

With smoke bushes I think it's best to try to avoid pruning any live wood unless you want to take the route of hard pruning it every year for best foliage color but no smoke. If my own 'Young lady' cotinus is anything by which to judge, even dwarf smoke bushes are quite vigorous and trying to prune them for a nice shape will only make them go crazy with alarming new growth.

I had a 'Golden Spirit" smokebush for many years and was almost ready to remove it because it was so ungainly. So I coppiced it. I now get a lovely flush of chartreuse/yellow leaves and I'm very happy with it.

Thanks Ken!

Thanks everyone for all the comments...

It was mentioned already, but if you planted the Cotinus for the 'smoke' plumes, then your pruning will be much more reserved. I have 3 or 4 different varieties and I plant them for foliage colour, not the smoke, and I treat them differently. I have a 'Golden Spirit' that I want at about 6' in height, so once I reached my desired height, I pollard the plant back to the same point every spring. I also allow young fresh shoots to come up from below and I replace the older stems with younger smaller diamater stems when appropriate.

I also have a 'Royal Purple' that I like to keep around 4-5', which I cut back to about 10" from the ground every spring, and then I also do a midsummer pruning. This has the added benefit of a nice flush of red at the tips that contrast the more "greeny" older leaves.

tl:dr My experience is that you can be heavy handed with the pruners on Cotinus coggygria, especially once established.

thanks brothergarm ...