Here is a plant whose time has come – lantana. Tough, ever-flowering, attractive and demanding little attention, this tenacious shrub (which acts more like a perennial in its non-native range) fits the bill for homeowners who want to enjoy the simple life. Put the plant in the ground, lie back and watch it flower. If you live in USDA Hardiness Zone 7 and higher, you can eliminate pruning, most pest control and deadheading from your schedule of horticultural chores. Lantana is a low-maintenance gem of a plant, and a delight for the time-challenged gardener.
Flowers of many colors often appear in lantana floral heads.
Photo Credit: David L. Morgan
Lantanas mix well with other foliage and flower types.
Photo Credit: David L. Morgan
Lantanas are colorful in groupings.
Photo Credit: David L. Morgan
In our neighborhood, we planted lantanas around a crapemyrtle tree, and they return loyally every spring.
Photo Credit: David L. Morgan
A member of the vervain family (Verbenaceae), the most popular lantana species is the native Lantana camara, along with its many cultivars. Lantana montevidensis, the weeping or trailing lantana from South America, is used as a landscape plant worldwide. Many commercially available cultivars are hybrids of these species.
It’s the fast-growing properties of lantana that makes the plant so popular. These beauties spread their long stems and bright colors throughout the landscape quite fast. But, it’s the same vigor and ability to adapt that make lantana species invasive in south Florida and some other tropical and subtropical locations. Herbicides are used to control their spread there. (FYI – the common herbicide glyphosate stops lantana dead in its tracks.)
Lantanas are showy with their many clusters of small flowers in bright colors. Some blooms are solid, such as the all-white selections and the popular yellow varieties, while others are multicolored. The small bouquets of blossoms, hardly more than an inch wide, often change color as each individual flower opens, then ages. Color combinations may include white and purple, yellow and pink, yellow and orange, and pink and magenta.
Some gardeners may not take to lantana’s richly aromatic scents right away, but the beauty they impart to the landscape is undeniable. In addition to the bright blooms, the plants sport small, 1-4-inch-long, medium-green leaves that are rough to the touch, often hairy and opposite on the stem. The square stems may reach several feet in length, particularly among the trailing varieties.
Lantanas adapt remarkably well to many soils – even somewhat boggy ones – and thrive as desert plants, too. In unreplicated experiments in the Morgan garden, we’ve found that flowering is directly proportional to watering, particularly those we have in containers. When irrigation is scarce, the plants survive, but they recess into floral seclusion.
Though modest fertilization is recommended, our selections thrive in unamended native soils and ordinary potting mixes with little supplemental nutrition. There are reported complaints of pestiferous colonies of whiteflies, red spider mites, the nefarious lantana lace bug and other ordinary garden critters, but we’ve not seen many signs of serious damage on our lantanas. I suspect the plants’ sandpaper-like leaves repel many arthropods. I am reluctant to spray anyhow, as chemicals or even insecticidal soaps might discourage the many butterflies and occasional hummingbirds the plants attract. The only regular maintenance observed in the Morgan gardens is our annual whacking them to the ground after the first freeze zaps the leaves and stems. No worry; our lantanas return loyally the following April.
Lantanas are not shade plants, but they’ll flower in as little as four hours of direct sun – though the more sun the better to reduce lankiness and bring out the best colors. Because they require little care, lantanas are favorites of city parks departments and commercial developers who prefer not to prune, spray and pamper. Tolerant of a wide range of soil conditions – such as dry, rocky sites to sandy, seaside areas – lantanas can be planted in almost any situation.
While most of the selections offered today are smaller, some cultivars grow up to 6 feet tall and 8 feet wide. So, depending on you choice, lantanas can be used as upright shrubs, low-growing shrubs or groundcovers. They perform beautifully in containers, as well. Those who prefer to meddle with nature can find comfort in training the long stems of the lantana into tree forms or standards.
One of the favorite cultivars is the yellow-flowered Lantana camara ‘New Gold’, a profuse bloomer that’s nearly completely sterile. This is an attractive feature now popular with many growers who prefer to market lantanas whose fruit need not be removed to intensify flowering and prevent unwanted seedlings. ‘New Gold’ grows 18 inches high by 3 feet wide. It’s hardy to Zone 7, and it has been used successfully in landscapes in my north Texas neighborhood (Zone 7b) for several years.
Worthy of note also is the newly released Lantana camara ‘Marc Cathey’ (Patriot™ Series), which has proved itself as a landscape specimen of note in tests in Louisiana State University gardens. ‘Marc Cathey’, named after the late Learn2Grow horticultural expert Dr. H. Marc Cathey, is a tall, white-flowering variety. The flower centers are clear lemon yellow. It’s considered a vigorous-growing, mounding type that reaches up to 5 feet tall and wide in one growing season. Like ‘New Gold’, it’s sterile, which means it won’t produce unattractive seed pods.
If you’re lucky enough to live where you can grow the dependable, lovely lantana, what are you waiting for? You’ll be amazed at how quickly the bright colors appear in spring – bringing you months of enjoyment all summer long.
