Monterey Carpet manzanita

Arctostaphylos hookeri ‘Monterey Carpet’

Description

The Monterey carpet manzanita is an attractive evergreen shrub with slender and intricate branching that has proven to have good garden tolerance and a consistent growth habit to 1-2 ft. tall with the potential to spread up to 8-12 ft. across. It has medium green leaves, 1 in. in size, distinctly pointed and have minute barbs on their margins. Small numbers of white flowers occur in the spring; bark on stems and small branches is deep red-purple.

Monterey Carpet manzanita performs well on banks and around large rocks with other natives. It is not as robust as other manzanita ground covers for the Inland Empire and needs protection from heat and sun when grown in warmer and drier inland and valley areas.

Plant Type: Shrub, Ground cover, Native
Foliage Character: Evergreen
Habit: Spreading, Mounding
Growth Rate: Slow
Foliage Color: Medium green
Flower Color: Pink, White
Flower Season: Spring
Soil Adaptations: Well-draining soil, Acidic soil
Exposure Adaptations: Morning sun, Moderate shade, Fog, Coastal salt air, All day sun
Function: Slopes, Rock gardens, Hummingbird plant, California native, Wildlife value
Height: 1 ft. – 2 ft.
Width: 8 ft. – 12 ft.

Watering Schedule: Low 1

For most situations, we recommend watering deeply every 3-4 weeks after establishment.

Learn how to apply this watering schedule to your landscape on our How to water waterwise and California native plants page.

Important Notes

These are general guidelines. Always observe and adjust as necessary for your landscape.
If it rains over 1” you will likely not need to water for at least another 3-4 weeks. Before watering again, check the soil. It should be significantly dry at least 4” below the soil surface before watering.
If you have a “smart timer” or weather sensitive irrigation controller, it is best not to use the automatic weather adjusting features for plants in this category. While very useful for watering higher water demanding plants, those in this category have natural drought adaptations which mean they do not need to be watered more in warm weather. Using the weather adjusting features will result in either overwatering in summer or underwatering in fall and spring.
It is important to group plants with the same water needs together in the landscape to avoid needing to over or under water plants when running your irrigation system.

In general Manzanitas do not need much pruning. Carefully select the right species or cultivar for a fully mature size that fits your space well. Carefully thin or “skirt up” manzanitas to expose beautiful branches in November, after risk of sunburn from long summer days has passed (1). Manzanitas occasionally get bright red growths on the edges of leaves. This is manzanita leaf gall aphid, a small insect that causes the plant to create this reaction. It is generally not threatening in healthy plants, but can spread. Growth affected by leaf gall aphid may be pruned out after winter-spring flowering (4). References

Monterey Carpet manzanita

Description

Watering Schedule: Low 1

Important Notes

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Monterey Carpet manzanita

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