Common Manzanita
Arctostaphylos manzanita (ERICACEA)
Planting and Growing Common Manzanita
You’ll find everything you need to know to plant and grow common manzanita in the accompanying table’s tabs:
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- Flowers, foliage, fruit, seeds or nuts of common manzanita
- Growing conditions for common manzanita
- When and where to plant common manzanita
- How to plant common manzanita
- How to shape, prune and control growth of common manzanita
- Watering, fertilizing, and care of common manzanita
- Landscape uses of common manzanita
- Pest and disease control for common manzanita
Growing Common Manzanita
Several cultivars of slow-growing, upright and branching or spreading, evergreen shrubs, 6–20 ft. (1.8–6 m) tall and wide, with smooth to shiny, deep green, leathery, oval, pointed leaves, to 2 in. (50 mm) long, often with contorted branches and burgundy, red bark.
See also Bearberry, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, a closely related shrub in the same family.
Other close relatives include hairy manzanita, Arctostaphylos columbiana; Hooker’s manzanita, Arctostaphylos hookeri; common manzanita, Arctostaphylos manzanita; and glossyleaf manzanita, Arctostaphylos nummularia.
Common Manzanita Planting and Care Guide
Flowers and Fruit
Many cream, pink, white flowers, to 1/4-in. (6-mm) long, in nodding clusters, to 1-3/4-in. (44-mm) long, in late spring, with mealy, red, round, berrylike, edible fruit bearing many seed in autumn.
Best Climates
U.S.D.A. Plant Hardiness Zones 6–9. Semi-hardy. Best in mountain altitudes, 3,000–5,000 ft. (920–1,540 m) high.
Soil Type and Fertility
Damp to dry, well-drained, sandy soil. Fertility: Average–low. 6.0–7.0 pH.
Where and How to Plant
Full to filtered sun. Space 4–8 ft. (1.2–2.4 m) apart.
Proper Care
Moderate–challenging. Keep moist until established; drought tolerant thereafter. Deep water monthly; allow soil to dry between waterings. Fertilize annually in spring. Avoid pruning. Propagate by layering, seed.
About This Species
Good choice for accents, banks, containers, hedges, screens, walls in arid, mountain, woodland, Xeriscape gardens. Branches are good for drying, decoration. Use berries for jelly. Pest and disease resistant.