In praise of Manzanita's for the garden

Having enjoyed a Spring of extensive manzanita bloom - now heavy with berries - in my North Park yard, I'm suggesting them as dependable,  'multi-tasking' plants as a significant part of a garden composition, rather than a few singular specimens.

First, I acknowledge this is written from mostly a design (rather than regional) orientation, in a small yard in Coastal Sage Scrub North Park, with numerous Arctostaphylii combined with CSS natives, oak, and some Island natives as well, and no regular irrigation (overhead hand watered every 4-6 weeks if long dry period). 

What's attractive is the wide variety of plant forms from ground-hugging 2" high Carmel Sur, low John Dourley, tidy mid size  Franciscana and Sunset, wiry Del Mar, larger Lester Rountree, up to large (slowly!) Dr. Hurd's. Aside from size, there is a variety of leaf texture and color (grey to bright green), as well as both white and pink flowers. 

For the smaller urban/suburban yard, choosing mostly hybrids or horticulturally oriented varieties of native has proven to work well to maintain size and form.