Summer in Kansas City can be scorching hot, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy some beautiful plants and flowers in your garden. In recent years, we’ve come to love the bright little flowers on Lantana plants. You can usually find these low-maintenance plants at most lawn and garden centers this time of year, and they’re easy to spot — the delicate flowers grow in groups and they come in a wide variety of bright, bold colors, including red, orange, pink, yellow and purple. Lantanas are hearty plants that bloom all season long and are drought tolerant, making them an ideal choice for summer landscapes!
In this part of the country, with hot summers and long winter months, theLantana is an annual flowering plant. In the southern states, with mild winters, it can be grown year-round as a perennial, but unfortunately, not here in Kansas City. It can be grown in the ground or in a container with well-drained soil throughout the spring and summer.
Lantana Basics
Growing Zones: 2-11
Bloom Time: Throughout the summer and into fall
Exposure: Full sun
Mature Size: From 6 inches to 8 feet tall, depending on the variety
Notes: Lantana thrives in full sun. If they’re placed in areas with too much shade, the plants are more likely to produce fewer blooms. And in areas with too much moisture, powdery mildew and root rot are more likely to occur.
Growing Lantana in the Landscape
Lantana plants vary in size and shape depending on the specific variety. However, despite being treated as an annual in most climates, it can still reach almost 3 feet in height during a single growing season. Some varieties act as trailing plants, perfect for spilling over a container edge or hanging basket. Upright varieties provide vibrant pops of color as high-impact annuals in planting beds among perennials for season-long color.
Planting Lantana Flowers
Lantana plants are evergreens of the broadleaf variety. Although they may grow similarly to vines, they are technically classified by botanists as shrubs, and look very similar to Verbena flowers.
These plants are known for their rounded clusters of small, brightly-colored flowers. The blooms may be yellow, orange, white, red and purple, and often colors are mixed within the same cluster.
Ongoing Care for Lantana
As long as you have a bright, sunny spot to plant them, caring for Lantana plants is easy. They can grow in shady locations too, but the plants will likely produce fewer blooms and become more susceptible to disease and insects.
These plants will grow in any well-drained soil, including sandy ones. In containers, it’s a good idea to use a commercial soil-less mix developed for container use.
Water newly planted lantana regularly to ensure healthy root development. Established plants are drought tolerant, but they should still receive roughly one inch of water per week, either through rainfall or irrigation. Regular watering fuels steady growth and full-size blooms more regularly.
You should prune Lantana several times throughout the spring and summer. You can safely remove up to one-third of a lantana plant’s overall size at any one pruning.