"Karen" wrote in message
...
| 1) Does lantana freeze? I have three lantana plants, two on one
| side of my driveway, and one on the other. I foolishly assumed that
| because these are native, they wouldn't freeze. (It looks like two
| froze and one didn't--the one that didn't is blooming.) I'm
| wondering if they will come back or if I need to start over. Same
| for salvia. I thought this was in the native-invincible category,
| too.
|

I think there was a debate about the lantana part here a year or two
ago. My practice is to wait and see what sends leaves out again--some
or all branches may. This puts you ahead with blooms and fruits for
the creatures if they do releaf and produce. Others just chop
everything down to the ground, which is fine, but delays production of
flowers/berries. The same answers would be given were you to ask about
turk's cap. In our yard, turk's cap is already sending out new leaves,
but lantana isn't yet doing so.

snip|
| 4) All of my tomatoes froze, but my biggest producer is still
| putting out, it seems. The above-ground part of the plant is quite
| shriveled, but the roots are still living and new branches are
| coming out, and only a few of the tomatoes on the vine froze. A
| pepper plant also seems to be coming back. Do I just trim them back
| and let them keep growing? Or do they need to be replaced?
|

We wait to see what our peppers will do. Some are in pots; some are in
the ground. Depending on the variety, you're likely to find that
there's vigor in some of the branches of many of the plants. Wait to
see.

snip|
| That's all for today, I think. My strawberries are flowering and
| crocus and narcissus and iris are blooming. Weird.
|
| Karen

We've had paperwhites that have come and gone; our gran
primo/Montopolis narcissi are just past their peak bloom. Ice Follies
daffodils are about to open. Many single-jonquil types that haven't
produced blooms for years are showing buds. Species tulips are still
popping up, though not yet showing buds. We've seen our first hyacinth
blooms--the variety that's the beautiful blue with a sort of stripe on
each petal. This is the best time of year!

Howdy folks,
In regards to this question:

| 1) Does lantana freeze?

When I was working at Howard nursery I noticed for the last few years
that every spring folks would tell me that their 'New Gold" and
'Silver Mound' lantanas had frozen out but the Lantana peruviana and
horrida were doing fine. As a result I warned people off those two new
cultivars.
Someone with more experience might comment but I got the impression
that 'New Gold' and 'Silver Mound' were two compact varieties that had
undergone extensive breeding to get the small shape and early
flowering and as in the case of a lot of breeding for compactness had
lost a degree of hardiness.

Steve Coyle
www.austingardencenter.com