Care-free annuals: Growing lantana

Growing and caring for lantana is pretty simple and straightforward. Just follow these tips to create a beautiful row of plants in your garden.

Bright, colourful and abundant, lantana is one of the easiest woody perennials you can grow and maintain in your garden. Simply follow these X steps to become the gardening envy in your neighbourhood.

1. Lantana background

This plant belongs to the verbena family, which means they grow tall, quickly, beautifully and with plenty of bloom. They're hardy in Zones 9 to 11 where it's pretty much frost-free climates, although you may be able to keep them in cooler climates if you bring them inside over winters. All you have to do is bring them back into your garden once the frost is finally done for the season.

2. Starting from scratch

If  you opt to grow lantana from seed, start in early spring once frost is finally done. If you don't see rapid growth right away, don't be alarmed: they need warm temperatures to really get going and you may have to wait a month or two for something to happen. As long as the plant doesn't look dead, you're doing okay.

Until the lantana is firmly established (i.e. the first year), water it a bit more than usual so that the soil is always moist. After that, you can reduce the watering schedule to about once a week. You also have the option of applying fertilizer once a year, but this isn't a completely necessary step when it comes to the easygoing lantana.

3. Deadheading and pruning

If left on its own, lantana can grow a little bit wild so you'll want to spend some time keeping it contained. Deadheading (plucking the flowery tops off at their bases) is one way to stimulate new growth and contain the plant, while cutting it back is a way to control it even more.

Pruning (the practice of cutting back the periphery to woody main stems) should only be done once a year and at spring. This will encourage the lantana to grow quickly for the upcoming warm weather. The plant grows berries on it but all parts of lantana are poisonous, so take this time as an opportunity to pluck the berries off.

4. Warding off pests and disease

Although the lantana is a fairly hardy plant, it can sometimes fall prey to whiteflies, lacebugs and mealybugs. To combat this problem, just spray it with insecticidal soap a couple of times.

If you notice white powdery mildew on the leaves, it's a sign your lantana isn't getting enough light and needs to be moved into the sun while easing off on the watering just a tad.

5. Overwintering

Unless you live in a climate zone where frost doesn't exist, you'll have to bring your lantana indoors over winter to keep it going. Doing so is really easy: prune it back to just the biggest woody stems, place it in a pot with fresh dark soil, and water it so that the soil is just barely moist.

If you spend just a little bit of time and attention on your lantana, you'll be rewarded with a gorgeous flower that'll delight everyone with its bright and vivid colours.