Last winter we coppiced our large Cotinus ’Grace’ down to about 12” for the first time. This produced the desired effect of lots of strong new shoots this spring, filling out quickly with large, colorful foliage. Last week, we had a thunderstorm roll through with some very strong winds, and I’ve now noticed that all of the new growth on the Cotinus has essentially ”collapsed” (see photo below). It appears all those new shoots were unable to withstand the wind with all of the huge new foliage weighing them down.

Any suggestions on what to do at this point? Most of the shoots don’t appear actually ”broken” or damaged at this point; they’re all just strongly curved/bent at the base, leaving the beautiful foliage flopping all over the ground.

Should I leave it be and see if the stems will eventually pick themselves back up, or should I prune back some of the flopping stems to see if it will produce some newer upright growth?

If all else fails, I can always coppice it again next winter, but I’d love to get it back upright again for the summer.

I’ve only every pruned our Cotinus when dormant, so I’m not sure how it would react to pruning when in active growth.