By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on April 1, 2003
When we were deciding on the Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) plant for April, there was consensus that we should feature our Hill Country native lantana. As Ann Black said, “Lantana horrida is one of the success stories in our dry, deer-ridden landscape.”
What’s more, Texas lantana (L. horrida) or one of its cousins usually is available at most nurseries. Lately, we have had a little bad luck with wholesalers’ stock of our Plants of the Month. Our local nurseries are trying their best, but it’s a difficult-to-predict trade.
Texas lantana is a familiar old standby for Texas gardeners, and everyone calls it by its scientific name. This lantana is a sprawling low shrub that can reach 3 or 4 feet high.
In the summer, its multiple branches are covered with two-inch wide bouquets of many tiny flowers, which turn from yellow to orange. Lantana blooms profusely in the heat of summer when many other plants are taking a rest. The flowers attract butterflies, and the purple- black berries are eaten by birds.
The species name, horrida, refers to the pungent odor of the crushed leafs. Some people find the smell “horrid” and apparently so do many deer. Older lantanas probably are deer-resistant, except in severe droughts, when deer eat everything.
I have had problems with deer browsing some lantana cultivars that were fresh from the nursery, but the deer in our subdivision have insatiable appetites. The leaves are said to be poisonous to cattle.
Another lantana successfully cultivated in neighborhoods with deer is L. camara, “common lantana.” Its several varieties provide a wide spectrum of color.
Once established, lantana gets by on very little water. In our climate, lantanas are perennial. Those in our yard freeze completely to the ground during a hard winter. This is not bad, because lantanas flower on new wood.
There is concern in warmer, moister climates that the nonnative L. camara is becoming invasive. In the Hill Country, however, it is doubtful that lantana is successful at escaping cultivation. I checked with Susan Sander, who monitors invasive exotics in the Hill Country, and she has heard no bad reports on lantana.
Lantana has escaped cultivation in many places around the world, and in some places, it is a major problem. On a visit to a friend’s farm in a semi-tropical area of eastern Australia, I found it impossible to cross a field because of a sprawling mass of inter- twined thick branches. When I asked, “What is that?” he replied, “Lantana.”
Knowing he was a native Texan by birth, I said, “You don’t mean what we call lantana?” Yes, he did mean that. In that part of Australia, lantana is one of only two large plants that landowners can remove without getting governmental permission. Thank goodness lantanas stay tame in the Hill Country.
The Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas provides planting and care instructions for lantanas at the nurseries participating in Operation NICE: Barkley’s Nursery Center, Boerne in Bloom Garden Center, Hill Country African Violets and Nursery, Maldonado Landscape and Nursery, and Where Wild Things Grow Native Plant Nursery.
