Lantanas blooming again

[livingplanet3]

Now that the weather is getting milder, the Lantanas are starting to bloom well again, including a particularly colorful variety with flowers that start out yellow, then change to white, then pink. Photo below.

Lantana has proven to be a good choice for my yard - they tolerate the summer heat, and need very little maintenance apart from watering. They die back to the ground after the first hard freeze, but quickly grow back from the base in the spring. Same with Cannas, so for a few months of the year, I don't even need to water them.

[kevinkk]

Nice. Lantana also seems to be deer resistant. That means that deer choose my other plants first, and have as yet, not chomped any Lantana.
Finding nice looking plants that flower, are less tasty than others and will do well where you put them isn't always easy.
Proactive can be the order, the lupine had to be fenced in this year, and successfully bloomed, I could have photographed it I suppose ,a
nice yellow and purple colored cultivar.
it's always too late when you realize you have deer salad or your plant is homesick.

[58chevy]

There is a large Lantana patch near my house that is exploding with blooms right now and attracting butterflies. I've never seen the variety that changes colors.

[livingplanet3]

Nice. Lantana also seems to be deer resistant. That means that deer choose my other plants first, and have as yet, not chomped any Lantana.
Finding nice looking plants that flower, are less tasty than others and will do well where you put them isn't always easy.
Proactive can be the order, the lupine had to be fenced in this year, and successfully bloomed, I could have photographed it I suppose ,a
nice yellow and purple colored cultivar.
it's always too late when you realize you have deer salad or your plant is homesick.

Interestingly, deer stopped coming around my yard after the Lantatas were planted. Apart from being unpalatable, I wonder if they also have a repellent effect, if planted in sufficient quantity? If so, it's helping protect my other plants as well.

There is a large Lantana patch near my house that is exploding with blooms right now and attracting butterflies. I've never seen the variety that changes colors.

Some varieties have flowers that change color as they mature, and others (such as "New Gold") don't. I'd long had a variety here that goes from yellow to orange, but until quite recently, I really wasn't aware of the cultivars that have pink/purple coloration. One that I planted this spring (a purple variety of Lantana montevidensis), is a trailing form that I really should have kept in some large pots, because when planted in the ground, it's growth was exponential - it rapidly took over and became impossible to keep in check. In a single season, two small plants took over an entire area, smothering everything else around them.

[58chevy]

Livingplanet, is montevidensis a good butterfly attractor and is it available at most nurseries?

[kevinkk]

Interestingly, deer stopped coming around my yard after the Lantatas were planted. Apart from being unpalatable, I wonder if they also have a repellent effect, if planted in sufficient quantity? If so, it's helping protect my other plants as well

Perhaps, but I offer this- The Lantana I have is in a container that held a sweet gum tree , the tree, more or less a sapling, this year began to fail,
so it was cut, the stump left. We planted the flowers, and later the sweet gum started to grow again, the deer ate the new Liquidambar, right next
to the Lantana. Now, you could read just about anything when it comes to animal behavior, is it random chance, or by design?

[livingplanet3]

Livingplanet, is montevidensis a good butterfly attractor and is it available at most nurseries?

Butterflies will come to it, but it seems less attractive to them than other Lantana species (at least in my experience). I've seen a few skippers on it. The common Lantana (L. camara) seems to be more reliable for attracting butterflies and other pollinators. I got my L. montevidensis at a local nursery last spring. It doesn't seem to be as commonly available at garden centers as L. camara. Here's a photo of a purple cultivar of montevidensis -


https://plantmaster.com/plants/eplant.p ... oject=2315

In a contained area, it's easy to control, but if given space, it will rapidly climb all over everything in a vine-like manner, as here, with this fence -


https://waterwisegardenplanner.org/plan ... evidensis/

Its growth habit is very different from that of camara, which is much more shrub-like in shape.

Perhaps, but I offer this- The Lantana I have is in a container that held a sweet gum tree , the tree, more or less a sapling, this year began to fail,
so it was cut, the stump left. We planted the flowers, and later the sweet gum started to grow again, the deer ate the new Liquidambar, right next
to the Lantana. Now, you could read just about anything when it comes to animal behavior, is it random chance, or by design?

As with anything else, I'm sure that there are numerous variables involved. I like to think that the deer are now staying away from my place just because I planted a bunch of Lantana, but it could well have more to do with the fact that there are now more dogs on my street, which might be a deterrent to them. Also, as of late last year, a new residence was built just to the east of my house, which also happens to be the direction that most deer would have wandered in from, where there is a heavily wooded area.

[jhyatt]

We've grown that purple variety in containers here in
Tennessee for a number of years, and much prefer it to the gaudier red-orange species. I've tried it in the ground, but it seems to do a lot better in a container. Sadly I couldn't find it at any nursery this year, and we are making do with brighter-colored ones. They all attract butterflies (and hummingbirds) very well.