This poor little bundle of sticks was 'bout yanked from the ground in last Aug while I was working on another root cutting project. "No Soldier Behind" put it in a box of 1/2 pumice 1/2 bark and a few days ago I noticed this.
I am lucky to have many many to choose from in my patch of 1' of topsoil over granite, so for 2 years I have tried most every schedule/technique. No failures yet hahaha The big one in the post above was actively growing, note the blossoms, when root work was done. Now this is at 6,800' and the patch only gets about 1/3 of a day direct sunlight. I have an even larger one I dug in early April this year after the same treatment last year. This one surprised me with very little roots on the bottom with a good amount of natural ground layer roots further up. When I left the cabin 2 weeks ago, planted in the pumice mix, it was still green but hadn't bloomed. The county road plow has pushed a large berm of gravel onto one border of the patch. They seem to ground layer very! easily.
Now all this is my results with this species in this particular dig spot, not to in any way imply other species or conditions might respond the same. The one in the photo Jay posted looks like it is one of those I mark "photo only" like most manzanita of this size--no way! If I find a super trunk like that one I will! set off on a multi year project of getting it out of the ground. I'm an old dude and hate to kill stuff older than I hahah. I will try and post results found in the next few weeks up at the cabin. We have a slooooow connection but I'll try.
Off the species subject but here is a multi year project that will start next week.