"Lucky" Series Lantanas And The Quest For Easy Hot Weather Color

'Lucky White' Lantana

I've been on a years-long quest for colorful, low-water, low-growing plants that bloom well in hot weather and distract the eye from sun burnt roses.  Chrysocephalum apiculatum worked fairly well.  However it is a short-lived plant and I haven't seen it for sale much anymore.  Basic Gaillardias--tough, non-stop flowering for months, though they have spread a lot, and take effort to groom.  I've stopped grooming them because the goldfinches like to eat the seeds.  Fair enough, but adds to summer's mess: 

 The short, dwarfy Gaillardias like 'Arizona Peach' are better--not so floppy, not so eager to spread. 

Volunteer lavender plants, though they are on the tall/large size for what I think of as "low" plants.  Tough and xeric, though.  Flowers not quite gaudy enough for summer--though the bees are always at them

Senecio ragusina--I'm not sure how tough this plant is, nor how to divide it.  This plant's color is the foliage, not the flowers.  Like it, though.  

 Geranium 'Rozanne' isn't xeric and can't take extreme heat.  It is wonderful in the cooler damper spots, but nowhere else here.  Calocephalus brownii can take the heat, but must be well established first before cutting back the water.   

 Striking red foliage on Crassula pubscens when it is stressed by summer heat, though the plant is very slow growing and too small for the size of this garden.

 Senecio mandraliscae is too rampant.  Bees love the ugly flowers--otherwise I'd snap the ugly flowers off.  

 Various Euphorbias with sterile flowers (so they bloom constantly).  There are several cultivars or selections--'Diamond Dust' was the original, I think.  This is 'Super White' which is more compact and a heavy bloomer.  On either side a 'Fred Ives' Graptoveria and Echeveria 'Imbricata'  While the Euphorbia holds up to summer heat and full sun, the succulents hold onto more of their foliage and have more beautifully colored foliage in some shade.

 The best of the succulents for hot spots has been Sedum adolphii (aka Sedum nussbaumianum 'Coppertone'?)  Beautiful orange color in summer heat, and holds up to that very well. With Abelia 'Kaleidoscope'.

 Daylilys--mid-to-late summer is not their prime time.   Still the light production is much admired. 

 Sweet Alyssum, Lobularia maritima dries up in summer.  

 The Lucky "series" of Lantanas are marketed as bright, non-stop annual color that perform well in summer heat.  In much of the US these plants, being frost tender, are annuals.  Here in much of Southern California they are perennials, looking somewhat ragged in winter,  but bouncing back as soon as the soil warms up in Spring.  
A long stretch of cool rainy weather makes the foliage spotted. 

 
Common Lantana species like L. montevidensis and L. camera have a trailing spreading habit.  In contrast, the 'Lucky' series plants have a compact growing habit.  They form a tight, smallish, shrubby plant.  While their growth habit is excellent, their ability to look good and flower lavishly in intense heat is also good.  An added plus:  the flowers feed bees and butterflies. 

This is my oldest 'Lucky',  planted in 2014, in August of 2015:

This winter, it was trimmed back only lightly.   I should cut it back harder late next winter.  Now it is knee-high and 3' (~1 meter) across.  Not many flowers yet--but plenty of emerging buds:

There are several different colors.  This one is tutti-fruity pinky

 A couple of golden ones--this is 'Pot of Gold', maybe.  The gold (yellow leaning in the direction of orange) isn't apparent in this photo:

This one has creamy orange flowers.  I just planted it, so gave it  temporary shade cover.  Even heat-loving Lantana needs sun  protection when planted in July.

 'Peach Glow' is also new:

 A few minor tricky issues regarding these Lantanas.  

First, they are almost always for sale when they look their best--which happens to be when it is too hot to plant anything, in mid summer.  I overcome that issue via temporary shade for the plant's first summer, shade given usually until the nights cool down in mid-September.  I've planted a couple in cooler autumn weather, and it took them a very long time to get going--until the following summer.

Second, I learned to be careful about when and how much to cut them back.  I cut the tutti-fruity pinky one back very hard just as the weather cooled down last November.  That set the plant back for eight months!  It has only recovered the past week or two.  So now they will be cut back lightly in fall so they are not too ratty for the winter, and cut back again just before the weather starts to warm up in May.  That should mean a faster recovery.  

(Note:  no one gave me these plants in return for a testimonial.  I paid retail for them--around $5 each in the 1 quart size.  This is my experience with them in my garden--your mileage may vary!)

In hot weather, easy plants are a big plus--less care required when hot weather makes gardening a trial.  These Lantanas have proven to be easy.