Lantana - Bang for the Buck

When I first moved to the Golden State, we were living about an hour north of where we are now. I wasn't too far from the botanical gardens on the Fullerton campus of CSU, so decided to pay them a visit. As I walked around the different garden zones, I was struck by this one incredibly multi-colored flowered shrub that grew in the xeriscape zone. I had no idea what it was, and took a myriad of photos. Each flower was made up of tinier little flowers, and they all had different colors! I was captivated by this cute, citrusy scented plant.

When we moved to our new neighborhood, I found this stuff growing all over our neighborhood. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that "The Earth laughs in flowers" and maybe he was looking at Lantana camara, as it comes in lots of colors: pink, white, yellow, red, orange, and purple. We have it growing all over the community, as a 6 foot tall shrub, and also as a sprawling ground cover. I have banks of it planted on the landscape area behind our house, and planted a small one in my front yard.
Once established, they are drought tolerant. The shrubs are evergreen in zone 8 and higher, but can be grown as an annual in the cooler zones. They are a favorite food source for butterflies and hummingbirds. Lantana thrive in full sun, and take well to periodic pruning which encourages more flowers. When my purple one gets a bit too overgrown, I give it a good haircut and am rewarded with even more blooms very soon after.
In northern climates, I've seen lantana used in hanging baskets. The purple variety, pictured above, looks more "viney" than the other colors, which tend to be more like shrubs. One important note: they can be invasive, and lantana are also toxic, in that the leaves can cause a rash, and the unripe berries can be fatal if ingested by children or pets. The birds can digest the ripened berries, and the stems have small prickers on them, which are very irritating to bare skin. Other than that, it's a really pretty and colorful shrub that can add some interest to a hedge or screen, or planted on a hillside.