Bearberry, Kinnikinick, or Mountain Box
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (ERICACEAE)
Planting and Growing Bearberry
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow bearberry, kinnikinick, or mountain box in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, and fruit of bearberry, kinnikinick, or mountain box
- Growing conditions for bearberry, kinnikinick, or mountain box
- When and where to plant bearberry, kinnikinick, or mountain box
- How to plant bearberry, kinnikinick, or mountain box
- How to shape, prune and control growth of bearberry, kinnikinick, or mountain box
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of bearberry, kinnikinick, or mountain box
- Landscape uses of bearberry, kinnikinick, or mountain box
- Pest and disease control for bearberry, kinnikinick, or mountain box
Growing Bearberry
Many cultivars of slow-growing, low, matlike, evergreen shrubs, to 1 ft. (30 cm) tall and 10–15 ft. (3–4.5 m) wide, with shiny, deep green, broadly oval, rounded leaves, to 1 in. (25 mm) long, turning bronze in autumn.
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi ‘Alaska’ and ‘Vancouver Jade’ are popular cultivars. See also Common Manzanita, Arctostaphylos manzanita, a closely related shrub in the same family.
Other close relatives include hairy manzanita, Arctostaphylos columbiana; Hooker’s manzanita, Arctostaphylos hookeri; and glossyleaf manzanita, Arctostaphylos nummularia.
Bearberry Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Fruit
Many bell-shaped, cream, pink, white flowers, to 1/4-in. (6-mm) long, in nodding clusters, to 1-1/2-in. (38-mm) long, in late spring, with scarlet red, round, berrylike, edible fruit bearing seed in late autumn.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 1–9. Semi-hardy. Best in cold-winter climates.
Soil Type and Fertility
Moist, well-drained humus. Fertility: Rich–average. 5.5–6.5 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Filtered sun to partial shade. Space 4–6 ft. (1.2–1.8 m) apart.
Proper Care
Easy. Keep evenly moist. Fertilize quarterly. Mulch. Shear to maintain form. Propagate by cuttings, layering, seed.
About This Species
Good choice for accents, banks, barriers, ground covers in mountain, rock, woodland gardens. Good for erosion control. Pest and disease resistant.