escape wrote in
:

Thank you! That's very helpful, and I'm inclined to give two or three
varieties a try.


Lantana is not reliably hardy much farther north than USDA Zone 7b,
but not the 7b located on Long Island. The zone it is reliably hardy
in that zone is the southern end in places like Dallas, but it's not
always reliably hardy in Dallas, either. It doesn't need heat, but it
is very heat tolerant. There are some varieties which are more
trailing than bushy, so maybe those would get long enough for you to
train, but ordinarily it is a shrubby, herbaceous perennial. There are
a bunch of new varieties which are sterile, but perform very well all

New Gold -- bright yellow, sterile flowers, spreading habit. This new
variety named New Gold blooms profusely but NEVER forms berries which
have to be removed before more blooms will be produced. This
revolutionary new development in lantanas insures that this plant will
be a continuous beauty rather than a virulent pest with its unwelcome
seedling offspring. But you MUST insist on the New Gold variety; all
other lantana varieties exhibit the characteristics which lead
botanists to label them with the highly unfavorable specie name of
horrida.

'Weeping Lavender' -- Fragrant, lavender, sterile flowers, low
spreading habit

'Weeping White' -- Fragrant, white, sterile flowers, low spreading
habit

'Pinkie' -- Pink/cream bicolor, sterile flowers on an extremely
compact plant which never requires cutting back

'Texas Flame' ('Dallas Red,'' New Red') -- Orange/yellow/red tricolor
blooms which turn to deep red, a compact bush. The reddest lantana
available.

'Samantha' ('Lemon Swirl') -- Bright yellow, sterile blooms and
beautiful variegated foliage on a compact bush. A beautiful plant even
without blooms! season and flower continuously.

I have all of these listed above and the most beautiful is the
'Samantha.' It is very easy to winter over in a basement or shed
which doesn't go much below 35 degrees. It's also very easy to root
cuttings from the new growth. It's not the hardiest of the new forms
and I have not had it come back in USDA Zone 8b, where we get maybe
two frost a year during a mild winter.

Victoria



On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 06:55:45 -0600, Rich
opined: