Lantana camara Seeds | Lantana
LATIN NAME: Lantana camara
COMMON NAME: Lantana
Plant Profile
A distinctive member of its genus, Lantana (Lantana camara) is a fine, easy, generous shrub. Lantana is shrub that blooms in every colour it can think of. Small, dark, berry-like fruits follow, and shrub keeps blooming almost without a pause. It is a fine, easy, generous shrub of warm, sunny garden, though it spreads freely and is best kept to its own corner. It is the sort of plant that quietly justifies the space it occupies.
Science & Biotechnology
Research touching on Lantana camara ranges from the botany of the Lantana group to practical horticulture, including seed handling, propagation and the selection of superior forms. Lantana holds a steady position in plant science, and shrub has been studied for colour-changing flower heads and strongly scented leaves. For practical purposes the message is encouraging: generations of cultivation have produced plants of predictable, well-mannered garden character.
Uses & Benefits
In the garden, Lantana earns its place in borders, containers and mixed plantings, and it also rewards growers who raise plants for cutting, drying or kitchen use. Lantana works hard in warm, sunny garden. Dense, rounded heads of colour-changing flowers keep butterflies and bees busy through a very long season, and tough, fast-growing shrub is a fine, easy, dependable filler of warm border and dry bank. Small, dark, berry-like fruits feed birds of warm garden. After the first season it asks for very little beyond a place that suits it.
Lantana is a butterfly magnet with an important caution: the unripe berries and leaves are toxic, especially to livestock and children, so it belongs in beds where browsing is not a risk.
Growing from Seed
Seed is the natural starting point for Lantana, and the process is uncomplicated. Level a tray of loose seed compost, sow evenly, cover to about the seed’s own depth, and keep it moist in full light. Grow the youngsters on steadily in pots until well rooted, then move them to their final positions.
Our Take
Lantana repays a little patience at sowing time with plenty of garden presence later.
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