Lantana: Which Growing Habit Is Best?
In short, choosing an upright, mounding, or trailing Lantana depends on its final application in the landscape. As you pick varieties for your commercial greenhouse, consider versatility and how you intend to market the plant to your customers. In warm climates, offering a mix of upright or mounding and trailing Lantana in several colors creates many options for bringing low-maintenance color to the landscape.
Let’s discuss the best use for each type of Lantana and ways to improve marketability for this beautiful and easy-to-grow plant in your greenhouse.
Upright Lantana, Common Lantana, or Lantana Camara is available in many colors and heights. Common Lantana typically grows in an upright or bushy, mounding habit. In borders, mass plantings, and landscape beds, upright Lantana ranging from 24-48” is most suitable. Customers can fill large spaces with tall Lantana varieties that bring contrast and bright colors.
Mounding varieties come in a wide range of sizes, from 8-10” tall compact plants to 24-36” tall, bushy ones. While a mounding Lantana may be an excellent choice for mass plantings and landscape beds, depending on the context and companion plants, it also excels in solo or combination containers. Compact cultivars excel even in hanging baskets and window boxes, making this the most versatile habit among Lantana plants. Create a charming landscape rife with texture and color by growing mounding Lantana alongside Angelonia, Pentas, and Salvia, either in a container or the landscape. Offering customers Lantana in a range of color and height options is an excellent way to get them started growing a colorful, low-maintenance landscape.
Trailing varieties are less versatile than mounding ones but offer a unique whimsical charm in the garden. Grow a trailing cultivar like Chapel Hill in a window box, combination container, or hanging basket. It also works well as a groundcover or spilling over a rock wall. Market trailing Lantana to customers as the spiller in pre-made combination containers or hanging baskets. Its easy care and striking color are attractive in any landscape.
Overall, as you choose which Lantana varieties to add to your growing program for spring, consider how much space you have in your greenhouse, whether Lantana will market as a perennial or annual in your region, and whether your customers are typically looking for versatile bedding plants or pre-made containers. Depending on the cultivar, Lantana is a tender perennial to zones 7, 8, or 9. If you have plenty of greenhouse space, you may want to offer Lantana as part of a combination planting or basket. If you have limited space, consider offering compact varieties in cell packs or 4-inch containers.
Whatever you choose that works best for your commercial greenhouse, Lantana is a charming, easy addition to any growing program and home gardener’s landscape. Customers and pollinators love its colorful, unique blooms, long season, versatility, and evergreen foliage in warm regions.
Our team would love to answer questions and hear comments about Lantana, your commercial greenhouse, or your customers’ needs.
