Arctostaphylos Mama Bear Manzanita

Identification

Description

'Mama Bear' seems to be very stable, tolerates clay, has a nice form, sprouts back after damage(did I mention I drove the delivery truck over it), has wonderful pinkish white flowers the hummingbirds like, looks good in containers and seems to superior to 'Dr. Hurd' for most yards(it's a little smaller and has cleaner foliage). The purple trunk and grey-green foliage make the six to eight foot tall by three to five feet wide manzanita a standout. A large manzanita for a small yard. 'Mama Bear' is a hybrid manzanita between Arctostaphylos stanfordiana bakeri 'Louis Edmunds'(now Arctostaphylos bakeri ssp. bakeri) and Arctostaphylos densiflora 'Sentinel'. In the wild Arctostaphylos densiflora forms miles of hybrids with A. stanfordiana and A. manzanita. As almost always, the naturally occurring hybrids can be very blossomy and stable. We had some 5 gallon 'Louis Edmunds' and 'Sentinel' in a small area that we covered with one small green house and two shade houses after a couple of years. The five gallons were long gone, but a few seedlings popped up. Since there really are not enough people here, things have a tendency to get ignored unless they burn up, blow up, or block a driveway. The greenhouse was abandoned and imploded. Under the old poly was this beautiful manzanita! The greenhouses were named the three bears. The 'Little Bear' or 'Baby Bear' had the seedling growing up through it, like a phoenix. The small leafed manzanita that we selected was called 'Baby Bear', the large leafed form was 'Mama Bear'. Click here for more about California Manzanitas(Arctostaphylos).