I really don't want this manzanita to go the way of all my other manzanitas. I'm not watering it, except once or twice, I didn't feed it and I have it in part sun, the weather's not even hot yet but temperate like it's supossed to like.
First, I had it potted in a cacti mix but the plant was unhappy and now I have it in sand with some rocks.
I'm at a loss, I don't know what I'm doing wrong.
It's A. densiflora 'Howard McMinn'.
Although its water needs may seem to resemble a cactus, it's not one so I would treat it more like a regular plant but make really sure you don't overwater it. I would use a good, well draining potting mix and make sure to let it dry out in between waterings, but since it's in a container it will need to be watered more frequently than it would if it were growing in the ground (not watering is something that's desireable for these plants only if they're planted in the ground and they're well established--then they can get through our dry summers without water, but for containers or plants that aren't established yet they should still be watered).
My gut feel is that this one is going to be a tough one to keep in a container...a lot of these native drought tolerant trees/shrubs are designed for an environment where their roots can dig down deep into the soil to find water so they get through summers with no rain, and that makes it really hard to maintain the exact right level of moisture for them in containers--either you don't water them enough and they die because of that, or you water them a little more often and then they die too because there's too much moisture. Were the other manzanita's that you lost also in containers, or did you have them planted in the ground?
Containers. Some of the tree manzanitas are actually supossed to be hardy to my zone but we get so much rain some times...
Maybe if I grow the baby in a clear orchid pot. That way it might drain even more and I can see how wet it's getting.
Or if I plant it in a really big pot so that the water kind of runs over the rots without getting it very wet?
When the plant came from forest farm, they had it in a dark rich looking soil that was really wet.
I think the first thing to do is get it in real potting soil, I don't think there are many plants that will do very well growing in straight sand. As for anything else, I think no matter what you grow it in you're going to have to be really vigilant about moisture level, and all I can tell you is the two manzanita's that I tried to grow in pots were very unsuccessful because I wasn't able to get that part exactly right. (Oh, and about Forest Farm sending it very wet, that's probably because they don't want things to dry out during shipping, but that's not the level of moisture it should have all the time).
So what is it that you like about the manzanitas? I wonder if there might be another plant that would have similar features but be better suited to your climate? I'm just afraid that you're going to continue to have trouble with these whether you try to keep them in containers or plant them outdoors so if you could find another plant that had similar flowers, leaves, or whatever it is that you like about the manzanita that you might be happier.
I orginally sought it out because I wanted to grow a live plant for my lovebirds to climb in. I thought manzanita would be great b/c expensive perches are made out of it and the plant would probably stand up to chewing.
Then in the process of checking it out, I just developed a fondness for it.
However, I would like to know of a similar plant that has the hardness, non-toxicity and weird branching shapes like manzanita.
You might want to try posting over in Trees/Shrubs to get some non-California suggestions on substitutes--I'm sure someone over there who lives in a climate more similar to yours would have some ideas. I think the hardest thing to match will be the weird branching--if I think of anything I'll definitely post it here but I think you'll get more suggestions over there.
