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California Gardening Native Plants

Help my manzanita

last year

This is the second manzanita we've tried in this location. The first died quickly. This one is now 3 years old. I was hoping it was established but recently found the dead branches. It gets south exposure, full sun, zone 11b (I don't remember the exact variety but it was a coastal one).

The pride of madeira to it's right is a volunteer that I will cut back hard after it finishes blooming (attracts lots of bees). It only blocks light in the evening and my experience is that the pride does not have an extensive root system. They do not touch.

Should I cut off the dead barnches? Water it?

Featured Answer

CA Kate z9

last year

You don't say where this plant is living, but if it is a coastal manzanita it will want cooler weather.

Also, this bed appears to be right next to a parking area. That might also be a problem; cars radiate a lot of heat for quite awhile when recently driven. Just the heat coming off the cars might be enought to doom many plants.

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Comments (7)

llilibel
Original Author
last year
I mentioned zone 11b. We're in Redondo Beach, less than a mile from the ocean. Always ocean breeze, frequent morning marine layer (May Grey, June Gloom). I don't think it's the car. That's mine and I'm usually parked there and the breeze blows right to left in this photo.

Actually I just doubkle checked. I'm 10b.
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Check with the Rancho Santa Ana botanical garden, which is probably where you saw the Manzanitas...they have a weekly consultant day for questions like that. The manzanitas in the botanical garden I doubt are trimmed, they are grown "hard"--without irrigation, so their shape is natural. Your friend's garden Manzanita probably has much richer, easier conditions, and is expressing that situation by growing lushly. Cutting off all irrigation (gradually) will probably eventually get you that bare limbed habit.
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The CNPS link is dead now, but the original content is still available at the Internet Archive. Here is the text of one of the replies from March 2000: A few years ago, one of my colleagues at Yerba Buena Nursery grew a lovely stand of Arctostaphylos canescens by burning the seed flat. You take a wooden seed flat plastic would melt, cover sides with aluminum foil, fill with seed medium, plant the seeds I think she left them on top of the medium, water them in, then cover top with 3 inches of flammable material. I can't recall what she used - might well have been dried pine needles. Then you set the flat on fire and let it burn down. You will be left with a bunch of ashes covering the seeds. Leave the ashes there, water the flat at regular intervals just like any othe seed flat. This worked very well with A. canescens, and should work with other fire-dependent species. The resulting plants grew quickly for a manzanita, and looked better than cutting-grown plants.
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Guess maybe you have already planted this by now :-) While it does spread nicely, it is not the fastest growing plant and if you have a number already (quarter flat = 4 or 5 plants?), I'd just space them out so they are evenly distributed throughout the area to be covered (and not necessarily in a straight line). FWIW, spacing of groundcovers has no hard and fast rules. Closer spacing typically results in faster coverage but with woody, evergreen plants some crowding may occur. One can always trim, however. More distant spacing just means one has to wait longer for the same effect but it will happen eventually.
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California natives can be difficult to get established in gardens, and many manzanita are particularly fussy. Far and away the best time to plant them is in the fall, when the rainy season is beginning. That way they receive enough water naturally (and you can supplement during dry stretches) to get established. Once established, they need very little water. Yours looks like it didn't get enough water when it was getting settled, which would make sense in a spring planting. You can cut off the branches that are completely dead and make sure that it gets enough water this winter. You almost can't overwater it in winter, since it is native to a wet winter climate. It might respond. Also, drip irrigation has a number of pluses, but it in no way resembles the heavy soaking that CA natives get in winter in the wild.
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CA Kate z9
last year
You covered all my issues. Sorry I can't be of more help. You might try asking at a reputable nursey.
llilibel thanked CA Kate z9
stanofh 10a Hayward,Ca S.F. bay area
last year
last modified: last year
Water it. Its not a wild Manzanita,its a garden plant and as such needs to be watered until the root system tells you "No need to water me" with abundant new growth. I just saw some in a Supermarket parking lot and with that twisty red trunk and branches really stood out.
gyr_falcon
last year
last modified: last year
Manzanitas are prone to some fungus pathogens that can cause branch dieback. I have thriving, established 'Big Sur' and 'Point Reyes' manzanitas that will occasionally have one here or there die. It is wise to sterilize your pruners after trimming. I cannot tell if that is what is going on with your plant, but it is something that can happen. Frequency may depend upon species/cultivar.
llilibel thanked gyr_falcon
llilibel
Original Author
last year
I never pruned it. I've reached out to the Theodore Payne nursery where I bought the plant but got no response. I have cut back the pride of madeira and gave it some water.
Gyr
last year
I meant if you choose to prune the dead branches off of the plant at some point, you should clean the pruners between cuts to help prevent spread in case that was the problem. I was not saying that prior pruning was the initial cause.

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