Lantana: The sun-loving, pollinator-friendly powerhouse

WPTF Staff Featured, Top Agriculture News, Triangle/Local, Weekend Gardener The Weekend Gardener

By MIKE RALEY WPTF Weekend Gardener

I have grown to love lantana. I never really had anything against it. It’s just the fact I haven’t had a lot of sun areas in my landscape and lantana can take up a fair amount of room if it is happy. Most of North Carolina is hot throughout the summer and we certainly have drought periods. Lantana is made to order for these conditions.

Lantana is in the verbena family and is sometimes called “shrub verbena.” It comes in various sizes from 1 to 6 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide according to my friends at the Cooperative Extension Service. It loves full sun, moist, but well-drained soil to fully perform. Lantana grows particularly well in the piedmont and thrives on the coastal plain and coast of North Carolina. It is even salt tolerant.

There are several varieties of lantana sold in North Carolina. “Miss Huff” is by far the most popular. That cultivar is all I have ever planted. It is a perennial in much of North Carolina and has splendid flowers of an orange, yellow, pink mix. “Miss Huff actually comes from cuttings from a plant found in Athens, Georgia. “Ham and Eggs” is similar with dark pink and yellow bloom clusters that appear for many as plates of ham and eggs. It always makes me hungry to talk about this one. It is also a cultivar you should have success in perennializing. “Chapel Hill Yellow” and “Chapel Hill Gold” are also popular. They do not produce light blue flowers, but I’m sure someone is working on that. Neither are quite as hardy as “Miss Huff” or “Ham and Eggs”. There are varieties with white, lavender, red and other colors too. There are many new varieties that you may find in the spring and early summer at your local nursery. There is also a groundcover lantana known as lantana “Montevidensis” or trailing lantana. It can be used in a large container to trail over the side. It will also hold soil on a bank. This definitely needs full sun. You can find this in lavender, purple and white. This variety like the rest we have mentioned are root hardy in zone 8 areas.

Lantana, as noted in the title, is a pollinator magnet! Butterflies, bees of all kinds and hummingbirds love this plant, the bright colors and lots of nectar. Pollinators also enjoy the mild, sweet fragrance and long growing season of lantana. The leaves kind of have a herbal or pungent fragrance.

I don’t use a lot of fertilizer around my landscape, especially with blooming plants which are deterred from producing flowers if they receive a lot of nitrogen. The nitrogen will instead give you abundant green foliage instead. That is, if you don’t burn the plant with too much nitrogen. The Espoma’s products are well suited for shrubs and flowers with their low nitrogen analysis.

Most of the folks on the crew on the “Weekend Gardener” agree that you will be safer Prune lantana’s dead stems in the spring. As for the dead stems this plant produces, I usually wait until the new green foliage sprouts from the ground before I get rid of the stems. Erv Evans always recommended we consider the appearance of a perennial in the winter before we plant in a show place area in the landscape. For the same reason it is not a good idea to plant a deciduous shrub along the foundation of a house. It doesn’t look good in the winter. You may trim your lantana during the growing season to produce more blooms. Another reason to prune is to prevent seeding. Lantana is considered invasive in places like Florida and Hawaii. But I have never experienced this in my landscape, nor has anyone on the show mentioned this as a problem for North Carolina. The folks at NC State do say lantana leaves can be poisonous to animals and an irritant to human skin.

As for pests, I have never noticed any insect problems with my lantana. If you have a thriving garden you may also be lucky enough to have predators like ladybugs, dragonflies, lacewings, spiders and praying mantis to help control the “bad” bugs.

There you have lantana in a nutshell. I like them. No, I love them in a sunny landscape with pollinators flying all around. If lantana is in a full sun location, has plenty of room to grow and is not overfertilized, this plant will give years of pleasure.

A bee, anthophora, in flight, approaching a flower on a Lantana bush. (Getty Images)

Crocosmia: From Sweet Melissa’s grandparents to your garden

The Associated Press Featured, Top Agriculture News, Triangle/Local, Weekend Gardener The Weekend Gardener

MIKE RALEY WPTF Weekend Gardener

We have enjoyed growing the very colorful Crocosmia-“montbretia” or “Coppertips”- a summer-blooming flower that reminds me of a miniature gladiola. Crocosmia grows from corms which are sort of like bulbs that store nutrients. Crocus, Dalias, Anemones, and Gladiolus do too. We have had them in our landscape for decades. This flower grew abundantly in Sweet Melissa’s grandparents’ landscape in Pittsboro and she transplanted a few bulbs to our yard. The few are now many. Melissa’s paternal grandparents, Marvin and Myrtle Reeves were special people. Everyone who knew them said so. That makes our crop of Crocosmia extra special.

The Crocosmia is a native of South Africa and not North Carolina. There are seven species of Crocosmia, if I count correctly, many cultivars and a few hybrids according to N.C. State University horticulturalists. I have normally seen this bulb, including Melissa’s grandparents, in a “fiery” red-orange color. There are also yellow varieties. It is a hybrid variety and is appropriately known as Crocosmia “Lucifer”! It is safe to say this variety in mass will light up your garden like a brush fire, if it is content. One of my very learned horticulture friends told me this was awarded the Award of Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society. I would give it the “Weekend Gardener” award too! There are varieties like “Dixter Flame” which is much smaller than “Lucifer” and Golden Fleece. This variety has golden, star-shaped flowers.

Crocosmia loves full sun and blooms prolifically when planted there, but will tolerate partial shade. Like just about every plant I have encountered, it prefers well-drained soil. The sunniest part of our yard is in the front and it has a slight slope to the grade. That is where our Crocosmia resides, and they have been coming back year after year and will eventually naturalize in your yard. I like low maintenance and Crocosmias are just that. Plant corms 2 to 3 inches deep, maybe 3 inches apart in spring or fall. Add a little organic matter to clay or sand.

If you follow the rules, Crocosmia does need some maintenance. Cut off the bloom when it fades. Proper deadheading will ensure more blooms. You should let the leaves die back. This will allow the corms to store energy. Later you can cut the foliage to the ground.

Most gardeners are into dividing bulb flowers and those with corms should find time in spring for this chore. Recommend tackling this task every 3 to 4 years. And since we live in the south, provides perfect opportunity to carry on the tradition of pass-along plants.

We always love a plant that can be added to a pollinator garden and Crocosmia is just such a flower. They will attract hummingbirds, of course, bees, and certain types of butterflies. They are also a good choice for a perennial border and container garden.

Spider mites are about the only insect pest we hear about that seems to attack Crocosmia. This plant is considered deer-resistant too.

Once in a great while, your Crocosmia may have to deal with a fungus.

We just let ours grow and thrive or not. It’s every plant for itself in my yard. So plant some “other worldly” “cosmic” Crocosmia and think of Melissa’ grandparents every time you see them. That’s what I always do.