Just when I fall in love with a plant, it usually turns out to be on somebody's list of invasive species, ie, hated weeds. OK, so it is prickly and tends to get out of control, but down here in the desert, there aren't too many prolific bloomers that can make it on their own, and surely I have mentioned before that I am decidedly NOT a dirt gardener. So now that I've moved to a place where we have a little patch of soil, I needed something that can grow on its own.
Lantana would seem to fit the bill, and after doing some exhaustive research online and deciding that Lantana would be perfect, I did what I probably should have done in the first place and took a walk around the neighborhood to see what everybody else was growing. Sure enough...red and orange and blue and yellow ones doing great all over the place. I didn't waste any time asking permission to take cuttings to root, and so my first Lantana experiment is underway:
Most people whose comments I have read suggest taking stem cuttings from the woodier part of the branches, but there are several reasons why I prefer to try this first since I'm wanting to get some plants established indoors in water before transferring them to the dirt outside and I want to see how fast I can root them in an AeroGarden. Typically the softer cuttings at the tip of the plant root faster, so we'll see if this is an exception.
I made a bouquet out of the flower heads that I had to trim off, as cuttings root best when the plant can devote itself to growing instead of blooming:
As time goes on, I will add photos to my Lantana page: HERE
