lantana varieties?

[Rich]

Zone 6, southwestern PA

We arbitrarily picked up a small lantana late last year (late July or so?), and stuck it in a bare spot to replace something that hadn't done well. We had never had lantana before, and did't expect much from the little guy, it was just a whim.

It did great--it grew quickly, flowered profusely, and by mid-September was really pretty. We'd like to do more with Lantana this year, but we don't know what variety we had, and have too little info to try to guess (or ask you to).

But can anyone recommend some varieties they've had luck with, in zone 6 or thereabouts? Although a little research indicates this is a heat/sun loving plant, it did great on our patio in full sun, but not much heat. It held it's own well into the fall weather, also.

Given it's fast growth, I'd really like to try training it up a post in a planter--I've seen some hints that this can be done--and prune it into a bushy form at the top. If I'd started that even last July, I think I'd have had time to get most of the way there. So with an earlier start this year...

Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

[escape]

Lantana is not reliably hardy much farther north than USDA Zone 7b, but not the

7b located on Long Island. The zone it is reliably hardy in that zone is the southern end in places like Dallas, but it's not always reliably hardy in Dallas, either. It doesn't need heat, but it is very heat tolerant. There are some varieties which are more trailing than bushy, so maybe those would get long enough for you to train, but ordinarily it is a shrubby, herbaceous perennial. There are a bunch of new varieties which are sterile, but perform very well all

New Gold -- bright yellow, sterile flowers, spreading habit. This new variety named New Gold blooms profusely but NEVER forms berries which have to be removed before more blooms will be produced. This revolutionary new development in lantanas insures that this plant will be a continuous beauty rather than a virulent pest with its unwelcome seedling offspring. But you MUST insist on the New Gold variety; all other lantana varieties exhibit the characteristics which lead botanists to label them with the highly unfavorable specie name of horrida.

'Weeping Lavender' -- Fragrant, lavender, sterile flowers, low spreading habit

'Weeping White' -- Fragrant, white, sterile flowers, low spreading habit

'Pinkie' -- Pink/cream bicolor, sterile flowers on an extremely compact plant which never requires cutting back

'Texas Flame' ('Dallas Red,'' New Red') -- Orange/yellow/red tricolor blooms which turn to deep red, a compact bush. The reddest lantana available.

'Samantha' ('Lemon Swirl') -- Bright yellow, sterile blooms and beautiful variegated foliage on a compact bush. A beautiful plant even without blooms! season and flower continuously.

I have all of these listed above and the most beautiful is the 'Samantha.' It is very easy to winter over in a basement or shed which doesn't go much below 35 degrees. It's also very easy to root cuttings from the new growth. It's not the hardiest of the new forms and I have not had it come back in USDA Zone 8b, where we get maybe two frost a year during a mild winter.

Victoria

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[Rich]

escape wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Thank you! That's very helpful, and I'm inclined to give two or three varieties a try.