Lantana

Hello everyone. I'm gonna worn you right now......I am a very new gardener so I'm loaded with questions. I live in Tennessee and the saying here is "don't plant any folowers till agter Mothers Day if you don't want frost bite". So I get a pretty late start of setting plants. Anyway My question is about Lantana. Is this plant an annual? I thought I read somewhere that it would come back every year. I love this plant. It really brightens up any area.
I would love to have a whole big bed of it.

Tina

Lantana is not an annual technically but where you are it will be. It is for me here too. It is fairly easy to propogate from cuttings I am told.

So I'll need to reset it every year right? Doesn't really matter, I love it to much to not plant.

Thanks,
Tina

Hi Tina, welcome to DG. we had our DG roundup last year in Crossville!! great place.
I'm surprised that you're a 6a, I didn't think you were that far north of us. A lot of the new lantanas are annuals anyway, so if it's something you love, go for it. You could probably take cuttings in late summer to keep in a cool place over winter.

I'm not sure where the line is between 6a & 6b. I just picked the first one listed.hehe. Thats so neat that you guys had the round up here. And now could you tell me what a 'roundup' is in gardener's terms?:)

oh :) we had our first big get-together. There is a round-up forum here, you can pictures. This year we're doing smaller ones in many more areas. There's one in KY in the fall, a one day swap near Atlanta the end of May. All are listed in the roundup forum. maybe we can meet up one day:)

that would be great tiG

Tina,
I live in Knoxville and I put out hardy annuals in mid to late April. Salvia, snapdragons, marigolds, larkspur, etc. all can handle a little cold snap. In fact, I covered my salvia seedlings with clear plastic tray tops this past weekend which really got cold here Sat. and Sun. night. They came through with no damage. I had started them under grow lights, and had put them outside on March 25th!

Lantana is grown as a perennial in warmer areas. I have a friend here in Knoxville who tells me that hers over winters with a good layer of mulch. So, I wouldn't hestiate to put out lantana later this month. I am going to plant my snapdragons tonight (using a cold frame to keep them from getting beat down in the expected rain that is coming).

I planted Lantana in containers last year, and put them in the garage for the winter. I bet mine will come back once my containers are put back outside.

My lantana usually comes back each year, but we're quite a bit further south than you are.

I have lantana growing in a pot with a bouganvilla, I brought it inside for the winter and cut it way back, and now it's growing like crazy again. I also took a cutting from it and it rooted easily

Thanks so much guys for all your help!!

Tina

All I've heard of Lantana is on HGTV - one of those landscaping shows- haven't seen it in a while, but I think the guys' name is Gary Allen?? or something... He plants LANTANA everywhere!! Think he's in Florida. Anyway, watch HGTV - Sunday mornings - Landscaping something?? Can't remember the name of the show.

Lantana is an evergreen perennial in frost-free areas.

It prefers heat and sun. Cold wet weather gives it a bad case of rust. Just whack it down and it will come back.

It's extremely xeric. Hardly ever needs watering.

There are shrub and groundcover types. The shrub-types suffer more from rust than the groundcover types, which are much tougher.