Arctostaphylos 'Lester Rowntree'

Lester Rowntree Manzanita

An evergreen shrub to small tree with red-brown bark.  This shrub grows to about six feet high and eight wide.  Dark pink flowers bloom in winter and spring followed by hard red-brown berries.

It is best to prune in the time when they are flowering to early summer.  Each flower cluster terminates the growth of a shoot causing an irregular twiggy branching habit.  It is not recommended to prune manzanitas during cool, wet winter months, this encourages fungal pathogens to spread.  You can edge in late spring or early summer.

An easy California Native to grow in the Los Angeles area.   

- Does well in heavier soils but also excels in  decomposed granite.  Tolerates alkaline or serpentine soil

- Water for first year and then can exist on rainfall

- Attracts, birds, bees and butterflies

- More susceptible to red leaf spot gall near the coast

- Drought tolerant

- Hardy up to 15 degrees

- California Native