Arctostaphylos densiflora Harmony Manzanita

Identification

Description

Harmony' manzanita is an evergreen shrub with pink flowers that commonly grows two or three feet high and six feet wide. Harmony manzanita can tolerate clay to sand, loam to gravel. It likes full sun near coast, but a little afternoon shade in the interior will make the plant very happy. Good as a large scale ground cover. Use it in the center and lower ones on the perimeter. It has red bark and dark green leaves. We sell a lot of these when they are in flower. (As they are solid flowers!) These are hardy somewhere @-10 and tolerate the interior heat surprisingly well. It is another of those anomalies in our California Plants, it is very restricted in its native habitat (less than a hundred plants) but out of its area it is easy to grow and thrives on neglect. Our plants in the ground here, in this form, have survived 0 degrees, 6-7 years of drought with rainfall of one of those years 4 inches, and temperatures one year of above 120 degrees repeatedly while being on a bank in full sun. One of the the most stable and easy of the manzanitas. Native in one small colony along with all the other Arctostaphylos densiflora manzanitas in Sonoma County. There isn't a true species form of any of these because I believe they all have a little hybridization with Arctostaphylos bakeri and Arctostaphylos manzanita. Of the cultivars in the nursery trade, the description in Four Seasons (The magazine from the East Bay Regional Parks) of the Arctostaphylos densiflora species is best represented by 'Harmony'. Their description of the site was of open, sunny heath in the pine barrens growing with Potentilla, spp., Ceanothus gloriosus var. exaltatus ('Emily Brown'), Xerophyllum tenax and Ceanothus foliosus var. vineatus. From that same description the soil is another of the acidic sand (Pliocene) on hardpan sites in Calif. that many (most?) of our cultivars come from. These sites almost stand in water during the winter and are dry, dry during the summer. The fruit is eaten by chipmunks, raccoons, scrub jays, and others. Nice plant, buy a dozen for a few hummingbirds.