Regardless of where you garden, site lantana in full sun for best flowering. Plants can grow in part shade locations, but flower number will drop and plants do become more susceptible to diseases and certain insects. Growing lantana doesn’t require intense soil prep prior to planting.
Blooming Solutions: Pruning and Watering
To encourage blooming, continually deadhead lantana plants by removing faded blooms, seeds or berries throughout the blooming season from late spring until frost. In addition to deadheading, shear off the new growth on branch tips to boost repeat blooming.
Citrus growers despise it as it is a serious economic pest to their industry. In many frost-free regions it has become an invasive nuisance, crowding out grazing lands and agricultural areas. Lantana is toxic for most livestock to graze and it is also poison for rabbits and their kin too.
The plants should be deadheaded to encourage continuous bloom. You can clip the individual faded flowers, or trim the whole plant with hedge clippers. Lantana is a good choice for hot, dry areas.
Lantana plants like full sun or partial sun. The plant should receive at least six hours (or more) of direct sunlight every day. It can tolerate some afternoon shade but will flower less if planted in a shady spot.
Lantana works well as a stand alone plant, but it can also be paired with other flowers that enjoy the sun and attract butterflies for enchanting butterfly garden arrangements. Pair Lantana with sun loving varieties of Salvia, Pentas, and Angelonia.
Lantana is a perennial in USDA plant hardiness zones 9 to 11, advises Arizona State University. It can also be planted as a summer annual in USDA plant hardiness zones 1 to 8.
To improve bloom, you can prune off old seed pods or berries left from prior flowers. Then, fertilize again lightly and water deeply once a week to encourage new blooms. Take care not to over fertilize since this may reduce flowering and increase disease susceptibility.
Select a location in full sun with good, rich, moist, organic, well-drained soil. Provide plenty of space when planting to ensure good air circulation and prevent powdery mildew. Space plants 18-24 inches apart.
Vibrant, vigorous lantana (Lantana camara) is commonly grown as an annual due to its frost sensitivity, but overwintering lantana in colder climates will help keep it alive and blooming for years to come.
Vigorous, Lantana are sun-loving evergreen shrubs or perennials forming bushy mounds of dark green foliage which get abundantly covered with brightly colored flower clusters from late spring to fall. … Lantana are tough, resilient plants which thrive in extreme heat, humidity and drought.
For example, lantana is a very popular annual in zone 5, used to attract butterflies. However, in zones 9-11, lantana is a perennial and actually considered an invasive plant in some warm climates. In zone 5, lantana cannot survive the winter, so it does not become an invasive nuisance.
They should be watered once per week during their blooming season. Ensure that the soil drains freely, as even weekly watering can create boggy conditions if soil is not loose. This may lead to root rot and other problems.
Shear back lantana for formal hedges by one-half the amount of new growth after summer and fall flowering. Shearing the plant any earlier would eliminate developing flowers. Shape the plant so it is narrower on the top than the bottom to prevent bottom growth from being shaded out as the plant grows.
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