shopping for a manzanita
I had a wish list with me on my last prilgrimage up to Las Pilitas Nursery, a specialist in California native plants located about a fifty-minute drive north of my house. One of the plants on the list was pointleaf manzanita, a.k.a. Mexican manzanita, Arctostaphylos pungens.
Pointleaf manzanita plant [ source ]
There are dozens of different manzanitas. Some creep along the ground. Others approach being tree-sized. The Las Pilitas selection of this species has the characteristic nice red manzanita bark, a graceful upright growth habit, terrific drought tolerance, plus a mature size that was perfect for the places I wanted to put it: about six feet tall and four wide.
When I got to the nursery I found one plant remaining, in a five gallon pot. Valerie at the nursery and a gentleman were looking it over, and he clearly was interested. They noticed me. There was talk of arm-wrestling.
In the end I guess I looked intimidating and the gentleman walked away. The prize was mine. So I came home with a nice large starter plant for where I wanted one for the front yard. I’d wanted several more, however, to put along the back fence. While I could have ordered some plants, I thought it might be interesting to try growing some from seed.
The most excellent Theodore Payne Foundation in the Los Angeles area offered seeds for this manzanita, along with the über-weird and wonderful Coreopsis gigantea and a handful of other plants that proved irresistable at from-seed prices.
The shipment arrived last week, almost no time after I’d sent in the order. (It’s pretty old-school–You actually have to fill out a paper form and mail it in…)
Envelope with acid-soaking instructions
September 30 2008 04:43 am | Categories: gardening • plant profiles | Tags: Arctostaphylos pungens • Las Pilitas Nursery • Mexican manzanita • pointleaf manzanita • seeds • sulfuric acid
Greg on 30 Sep 2008 at 7:45 am #
Congratulations on walking away from the nursery with the spoils. I can’t help wonder, though, just how you were attired/outfitted, that the gentleman in question walked away so easily? Were you packing holstered garden knives and such??
And wow to the coreopsis gigantea — at least when you commit to a yellow flower, you pick one on a truly spectacular plant. I totally want one.
lostlandscape on 30 Sep 2008 at 7:55 pm #
I flatter myself that those visits to the gym made me look a little more intimidating, but–like you suggest–what I was wearing might have been the fright factor. (I was in my ragged work grubbies that have gaping holes in the thighs, and they were pretty filthy from six hours of yard work–nothing Martha would wear to go plant shopping…)