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Lantana runs on a simple annual cycle: cut hard in spring, flower continuously through the heat, and either survive a mild winter outdoors or be replaced from cuttings. Almost every task falls into one of those three phases, and the mistakes gardeners make are mostly mistimings, particularly cutting in autumn instead of spring and feeding at any point in the year.
Two obligations run right through the calendar rather than belonging to a season. The first is deadheading, which keeps the flowers coming, keeps poisonous green berries away from children and animals, and stops the plant setting the seed that birds spread. The second is pulling seedlings. Lantana is a declared or noxious weed across much of the warm world, and volunteers that appear in your beds should be removed by hand while they are small.
Adjust the phases to your own climate rather than to a date. In a frost-free garden the spring cut happens when buds swell and the flowering season is close to continuous; where winters bite, the season is compressed into the frost-free months and the winter phase is about keeping young plants alive indoors.
| Season | Main job | Watch for | Do not |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early spring | Cut back hard once growth restarts; clear the prunings away | Which stems came through the winter; buds swelling on old wood | Do not feed the plant after cutting it |
| Late spring | Plant out into warm soil; pinch the tips of new growth | Soil above 60F (16C); the first aphids on soft shoots | Do not enrich the soil or add fertilizer |
| Early summer | Take softwood cuttings; start weekly deadheading | First flower heads opening; lace bug under the leaves | Do not water more than a deep soak every 10-14 days |
| Midsummer | Deadhead weekly; pinch after each flush fades | Stippled gray leaves from lace bug; sooty mold | Do not mistake midday wilting for thirst |
| Late summer | Take semi-ripe cuttings as insurance; keep deadheading | Ripening black fruit you have missed; self-sown seedlings | Do not start a late feeding program |
| Autumn | Lift or move pots under cover before frost | Whitefly on any plant coming indoors | Do not prune; autumn cutting kills plants over winter |
| Winter | Keep indoor plants cool, bright and nearly dry | Whitefly on leaf undersides; sticky traps | Do not feed or overwater indoors |
Spring: the cut that sets up the year
Wait until growth is visibly restarting and hard frost has passed, then cut the plant back by a third to two thirds. On a neglected plant, take it down to a framework of stumps six to twelve inches (15 to 30 cm) high, keeping only wood with live buds. Lantana flowers on new growth, so this hard cut is directly responsible for the summer display rather than being a sacrifice made against it.
Remove one or two of the oldest stems entirely so you can see daylight through the middle of the plant. That airflow is what keeps whitefly, mildew and sooty mold off the lower leaves through a humid summer. Rake up every scrap of the prunings and bag them rather than composting them in place, because stems root where they lie and any fruit on them is viable seed.
Plant out new plants only once the soil is above about 60F (16C) and frost is done. Plant into unimproved soil in the hottest, sunniest position you have, and do not add compost or fertilizer. Two weeks later, once the plant is growing away, pinch an inch (2.5 cm) off each shoot tip to force branching from low down.
Summer: deadhead, pinch, and leave it hungry
Summer is when lantana earns its place. It comes into full production once daytime temperatures pass 80F (27C) and it keeps flowering through dry heat that flattens everything around it. Your job is mostly restraint. Water established plants with a deep soak every ten to fourteen days in a dry spell and no more, and do not feed at all: rich conditions produce a large green plant with almost no flower heads.
Walk round weekly with a bucket and take off the spent flower heads with the swelling green fruit beneath them. Each head opens in one color and shifts to another as the individual florets age, which is why a single head looks two-toned, and a head that has gone entirely to the older color is finished and ready to come off. After each flush fades, pinch an inch (2.5 cm) off the tips as well; every pinched shoot branches and the next flush is bigger.
Take softwood cuttings from non-flowering shoots in early summer. They root in two to three weeks in warmth and can flower the same season. Take a second, semi-ripe batch in late summer as winter insurance, because small young plants overwinter indoors far more reliably than a large parent. Keep checking the undersides of the leaves for the fine stippling and dark specks of lace bug, and hose them off before the damage builds.
Autumn and winter: protect, do not prune
As nights cool, decide plant by plant. Lantana is tender and stems are damaged around 28F (minus 2C), though established plants in mild areas often shoot again from the base. In a climate where winter kills it, either treat it as an annual and rely on your autumn cuttings, or move containers into a frost-free porch, greenhouse or bright cool room before the first frost.
Whatever you do, do not prune in autumn. Cutting now removes the top growth that shelters the crown, opens wounds going into cold wet weather, and kills plants that would have come through untouched. If frost blackens the plant, leave the dead material in place until spring; it insulates the crown and it shows you exactly what is alive when you come to cut.
Indoors, keep plants cool at around 50 to 55F (10 to 13C), bright, and only just moist. Do not feed. Whitefly is the standing winter problem on lantana under glass and it breeds continuously in warmth on soft, well-watered growth, so a cool dry regime is itself a control. Hang a yellow sticky trap above each plant, check the leaf undersides every fortnight, and deal with the first few insects rather than a colony in spring.
The records that make next year easier
Keep four dates for each plant and the year gets much easier to run. The date of the spring cutback and the date the first flower heads opened afterwards give you the gap between cutting and flowering, so you can time the cut to make the plant peak when you want it. The date you took cuttings and the date they rooted tell you which fortnight works in your garden.
Also record position and whether you fed. Lantana's performance is dominated by hours of direct sun and by soil fertility, and a note that says which corner flowered from early summer to frost, and which bed had been mulched with compost in spring, explains almost every difference you see between plants.
Finally, log the pests and the seedlings. Note the date you first see whitefly or lace bug each year, which lets you intervene a week early next season instead of clearing an established infestation. Note every self-sown seedling and where it came up: if the count rises year on year, that is the signal to move the plant into a container or, where lantana is naturalising locally, to take it out altogether.