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Question: I put a hundred Lantana cuttings in a bench of sand and they all died. I would like to know the trouble because I have more plants to take cuttings from. CWS, Illinois.

Answer: Lantana cuttings can be hard to root, and they will rot in the cutting bench unless both the growing conditions and the cuttings are right.

Clean sharp sand is an excellent rooting medium and should be rather coarse with openings in the bottom of the container so drainage will be complete. The sand should be watered heavily when the cuttings are stuck and after that very sparingly, just enough to keep it slightly moist.

After the cuttings have started to root, watering may be increased.

Keep drafts of air from blowing across the cuttings. The wood used in making cuttings should not be soft and watery, but rather ripe without being woody. Do not water the stock plants for two or three days before taking the cuttings. At a temperature of about 60 degrees the cuttings should root nearly 100 per cent.

Question: Is lantana an annual or perennial and does it come in different colors? – FJ, Brooklyn, NY

Answer: Lantana is a tropical shrub grown from seed or cuttings for summer flowering outdoors in the North. Colors are shades of yellow, orange, pink, rose, red and some white. Before frost, old plants may be lifted, cut back and carried over winter for another year. Plants may be purchased at greenhouses growing plants for summer bloom; seeds from the larger seed houses can also be obtained.

More on Lantana

Lantana is for people who want a hanging basket full of cheery-colored flowers ten or eleven months out of twelve – and who will invest some small time and horticultural know-how – this is the plant to work with. It’s the trailing version of the tropical shrub that brightens Southern gardens, with vinelike stems up to three feet long, rough-hairy oval leaves, and tiny flowers in flat, tight boutonnieres nearly two inches across. Flowers of the species are orchid touched with pink, less rowdy than the orange-and-red bush lantana dubbed “ham and eggs.” And today’s hybrids offer an ever-widening color selection.

The lantana will flower in a greenhouse or sunny window all winter, then move outdoors to a terrace or patio and carry on all summer. It may grow too large for an average window box, but looks great at the edge of a large mixed planter, where its flower-laden branches dangle down and soak up the sun – or in a container of its own. In warm climates it is used to border patios and terraces, even as a bank or ground cover.

Lantana Loves Warmth

The plant naturally loves warmth. At 50 degrees its leaves may blacken; at 65 degrees or over it is forced into full flower. In winter it needs more than average indoor humidity, and every available ray of sunlight. Average soil mix is satisfactory; the addition of superphospate or bone meal (not manure) boosts bloom. Fertilize regularly while the plant is actively growing and flowering. Keep the soil constantly moist; my plants have wilted sadly when the soil dried out. To keep the flowers coming, pick off seed balls – or dead flowers before they form seed. Whether or not to pinch growing tips is your choice. Pinching encourages branching and production of flowering stems. Unpinched, the stems will trail and droop to greater lengths, with plentiful flowers.

Overwintering Lantana

After a summer of outdoor flowering, trim back the most woody stems when the pot or basket is moved indoors to winter quarters, for fresh new growth. Or store the pot in a cool (40 degrees) spot and keep it just barely moist, the plant half-dormant and leafless, until late March or April – then start it growing again. This is the time to do important annual pruning. Ruthlessly cutting back the entire top growth to six or seven inches will reward you with a brand-new, well-shaped plant for summer, with an abundance of the new wood on which the lantana produces flowers.

Propagation is slow and sometimes discouraging with seeds, but easy by cuttings of soft new stem tips. Fall cuttings make nice flowering plants the following summer; spring cuttings bloom the next year, but earlier.

In addition to the delicate lavender-pink species, two hybrids are fairly easy to find. ‘Gold Mound’ has gleaming pure-gold flowers; ‘Silver Mound,’ white. One Eastern supplier now offers a group of patented hybrids from California; the descriptions are reprinted almost verbatim.

Lantana ‘Confetti Tricolor’ – An excellent tricolor. The individual flowers in each cluster are yellow, pink, and a blending of purple. The effect is that of confetti on a green carpet.

Lantana ‘Cream Carpet’ – The masses of flowers are a heavy cream color centered yellow at the throat. The leaves are a particularly lush green and are very heavily produced.

Lantana ‘Gold Rush’ – Masses of solid gold.

Lantana ‘Pink Frolic’ – Some of the flowers in the large clusters are creamy with a yellow throat, but most are two-tone pink.

Lantana ‘Spreading Sunset’ – Vividly colored yellow-and-red flowers; leaves are a very dark green.

Lantana ‘Sunburst’ – About the brightest solid yellow clusters – and large ones, too.

Question: I would like to know how to save Lantanas over winter.

Answer: Just before frost is the time to make lantana cuttings (see above). Any small branch may be made into cuttings. Cut through a leaf node, keep the first set of leaves and cut again just above them. Make as many as you care for and plunge the cuttings in about a three-inch layer of clean coarse sand or vermiculite.

The cuttings should be away from all drafts, in a warm place. They should be watered heavily when first made and the watering should be done carefully and lightly thereafter. Too much water will rot the cuttings. After they are rooted, in about six weeks, they may be potted and grown along in a cool light place until spring. Cuttings may be made as late as February and still produce nice blooming plants for the following summer. Watch for white flies on lantanas. If they infest the plants, use any house plant insecticide like neem oil at ten-day intervals until there are no further signs of the white flies.

Family: Verbenaceae
Common Name: Weeping, Trailing Lantana