In my zone, it's annual. Period. It also doesn't seem to reseed!

I absolutely love Lantana, though. Last year I collected the seeds, but couldn't get anything to sprout and live.

Has anyone had any luck just sticking them in the ground up here?
How 'bout the cold? Should I pick them, bring them in and put them out in the spring, or just let them fall where they will and hope for next year?

I had that gorgeous purple trailing lantana, too, but it didn't seed. I was hoping! :)

Any suggestions are welcome!
Thanks,
Christine

Penny

Chervil2

A few questions though...

1. Where can I buy the seeds? I really need this information!!!

2. Can they be winter sown in Connecticut?

Chervil2 - I have been sowing a ton of coffee filter / baggies this year and almost gave up on some of the seeds. They have been in the baggies for months and are now finally starting (datura, which went nuts reseeding in my garden in Indiana... took months to start here) (should have been winter sown I wonder)... I changed the coffee filter every once and a while but I can't give up unless they mold then there is nothing to do...

"Lantana seeds need high light conditions for germination and early growth (Gentle and Duggin 1997b; Duggin and Gentle 1998, in Day et al. 2003), and seedlings are unlikely to survive beneath parent bushes. The germination rate of lantana is low under both laboratory and field conditions, with estimates of 4–20% (Graaff 1987) and 44.5% (Duggin and Gentle 1998, in Day et al. 2003). Germination rates increased from ten per cent to 46 per cent when the fleshy pulp was manually removed from the seed. This higher germination rate is comparable to that obtained from seeds collected from the faeces of wild birds. Seeds germinate at any time of the year given sufficient soil moisture, with most seed germinating after the first summer storms in northern Australia (Parsons and Cuthbertson 2001, in Day et al. 2003).
This species has been nominated as among 100 of the "World's Worst" invaders."

I wanted to make sure you knew that if you have a pretty variety that you really love this year, and if you save seeds (removing the flesh of the berry) and successfully sow & grow them, that the resultant seedlings may or may not look like the ones you admire so much.

The pink and yellow ones do come true from seed (+/-) from what I can tell...I'm going to try the red and yellow ones this spring.

My experience with these is that they germinated in about 2 weeks in the middle of Mar under lights on a heat mat. I had gotten the seeds from a swap and didn't really think they'd grow, but thought, "What the heck?" They are outside in the ground and blooming away as I type. BUT I could have easily bought bigger plants than what I now have, and they wouldn't have cost *that* much money.

Lime

In spring, just buy one or two plants, (try to choose ones with many branches), and use them for mother plants. My babies, grown from small cuttings, grew larger than their mother plant this year. Lantana is extremely easy to root from cuttings and of course, grows very fast. You'd get much quicker blooms via cuttings as opposed to waiting for seed grown plants to get big enough to bloom in one growing season. Does anyone know if Lantana will even bloom from first year plants grown from seed?

You might also get them to overwinter if you don't trim them back after the top dies and pile leaves all over the plant. The leaves will create a blanket that traps air and helps insulate the ground. The top will die out but in many cases, the plant will come back stronger than ever from the roots if you don't live in too cold a zone. The coldest zone I've tried to overwinter is zone 7a. They've always come back in this zone for me.

I wish for you many Lantana babies next spring. :-)

Mary