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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I Love This Plant!

Lantana.  This is my kind of plant.


Yes, it's growing out of a railroad tie.  Months ago, I pulled a railroad tie from the slope above to mark the border between a planting bed and the children's play set.  (Crap, it has a weed growing in it.)


This is where the railroad tie was pulled from.  That parent plant, I guess that's the right term, was pruned far back this year, as it was getting quite leggy.  The baby Lantana in the railroad tie gets no a) water, b) fertilizer or c) care of any type.  Yet, it grows.  That's my kind of plant.  Now, if only tomatoes could be like that.

14 comments:

  1. It's amazing to me how some plants find away to survive even in the most extreme conditions. Talk about having a will to live!

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  2. So much so, Thomas, I'm pondering covering the entire yard in Lantana and calling it a day!!

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  3. Hmm, why don't I have a single lantana in my garden?! It takes care of itself!

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  4. I love lantana too. Have it everywhere, comes back after the frost when I cut it back too. I do water mine some though. It also comes in so many different colors, fun plant ! Gina

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  5. That's the problem with life; a Lantana will live with any old shit, but a tomato demands care, attention and expense, before it keels over, fruitless and mocking your attempts to keep it alive.

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  6. Awesome! I love things that plant themselves (except bindweed, dandelions, hen bit...) Lantana is a great plant, but I can only grow it as an annual.

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  7. Tatyana, I highly recommend you go get one. Or, go pull a branch off of someone else's and stick it in the ground. I'm sure it will grow.

    ART, ours only get watered by Mr. I-Never-Saw-Anything-Green-I-Didn't-Want-to-Water-Five-Times-a-Day next door. This particular little guy, though, is out of shot of those cannons the neighbor has for sprinklers.

    IG, truer words have never been spoken.

    Sherlock, I'm sure I would get used to it, but I would think it would be quite frustrating to lose my plants every year. Of course, I mean due to the weather and not my own incompetance.

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  8. I used to grow Lantana in some very harsh, very clay soils, with little water, and it was the happiest plant in my garden! It really is tough stuff, and apparently, as you've discovered, very easy to propagate too!

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  9. Yes, Curbstone. I'm also finding that it's a runner, as I have it popping up several feet away. I thought they were just volunteers, but yanking them out pulls a root out all the way back to the main plant. Indestructible.

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  10. And that is the reason why Lantana is also one of my favorites :-)

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  11. So how the hey do you screw up with a no-fail Lantana?? Well, I certainly did... My mistake was growing them in planters, where they succumbed to (my best guess) overwatering. So you're doing it absolutely right, as in, straight in the ground, even if it's in a railroad tie!

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  12. I think its very pretty. In Australia it is considered a weed and they madly try and pull it out everywhere. Never understood that really.....xv

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  13. Ms. Archer, thanks for the comment. I certainly wish it grew like a weed in my yard. That would make life much easier.

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  14. I really like Lantana. They are annuals for us, but last year the one I planted got huge and covered in flowers all summer. I've just planted another for this year.
    It's amazing how well it's growing in the railroad tie.

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