Sometimes I feel that lantana gets a bad rap at the nurseries. Customers will come in asking for perennial, deer resistant, drought tolerant, low maintenance plants for their landscapes but then say, “but nothing boring like lantana”. What?! Here is a plant that possesses all these attributes, PLUS provides stunning beauty when in bloom AND valuable nectar for our local pollinators. How can watching multiple types of butterflies and bees delighting in your landscape be boring?!

Today, I am specifically talking about New Gold™ lantana and all it has to offer you. I’ll bet the word “boring” doesn’t cross your mouth with lantana again!

5 Reasons to Love New Gold™ Lantana

1. New Gold™ lantana is heat and drought tolerant.
2. New Gold™ lantana is a Texas Superstar® plant
3. New Gold™ lantana is non-invasive
4. New Gold™ lantana offers rich nectar 
5. New Gold™ lantana is low maintenance

1. Heat and Drought Tolerant: Living in San Antonio, finding plants that can deal with our Texas heat is of utmost importance to most gardeners and homeowners that also desire a beautiful landscape. The hot, yellow sun does not bother the golden-yellow blooms of New Gold™ lantana. In fact, once these plants are established, the sun can shine without a drop of water from the sky for days before lantana wilts up and needs a drink. Water New Gold™ regularly during its first planting season to establish a strong, deep root system. Make sure you plant this lantana in well-draining soil (pH of soil is not an issue), as wet feet can be the kiss of death to them. Heat tolerant and drought resistant? Not boring!

2. Texas Superstar choice: You know how we love our Texas Superstar® plants here at Rainbow Gardens! New Gold™ lantana is on this list. Plants on this list have to go through multiple trials that test for quality and reliability in order to achieve superstar status. New Gold™ lantana has proven its reliability time after time throughout the years at Rainbow Gardens, and we are glad that it has earned a spot on this list.

3. Sterilized plant for non-invasive habit: This New Gold™ lantana is an improved variety through the implementation of sterilization. What this means is that New Gold™ rarely produces berries (fruits) that, on most lantana, need to be plucked off for blooms to emerge. The lack of berries also eliminates the problem of birds spreading volunteer seeds after ingesting the berries and, ahem, “depositing” them in unwanted areas of your landscape. Basically, they behave and stay put where you plant them. An improved lantana that prohibits invasiveness in the landscape?  Not boring!

4. Pollinator plant: As mentioned before, New Gold™ loves full sunshine. In fact, I would say it spurs on more flowers to emerge. New Gold™ lantana provides a profuse amount of clustered blooms set against deep-green foliage. These flowers provide a welcoming respite for butterflies to land and fill their bellies with energizing nectar spring through fall. That’s three full seasons of blooms, y’all! A few of these New Gold™ lantana planted together in mass would make a stunning display for front borders of garden beds, and an amazing buffet for local pollinators. You don’t need too many because while they only grow about 2’ tall, they spread about 2′-4’ wide, so you get a big bang for your buck. Gorgeous flowers, three seasons of blooms, and food for our local pollinators? Not boring!

5. Easy to grow: Finally, New Gold™ lantana is low maintenance. Pruning it back to the ground in early spring, offering it some all purpose fertilizer, and then pruning it back by only ⅓  in late summer for fall (no later than Sept. 1st), and offering it fertilizer again is really all you need to do. Not a lot of time wasted on maintaining a plant? Not boring!

I sure hope you will give New Gold™ a try sometime. P.S. It also looks and performs great in containers! Fall decor anyone? (Not boring!)

~The Happy Gardener, Lisa Mulroy