Shrub Verbena
Lantana camara
(lan-TAN-uh) (kuh-MAR-uh)

I have this growing in a big container. I am not sure what cultivar it is and when I went to look it up I found out there are lots of different ones. There seems to be several species available to gardeners also. This one is really a pretty flower that changes color with age. It also stays compact which is a nice feature. Lantana isn’t hardy around here and it seems to winter over in the glass house okay. Recently I have been chucking it in the spring and getting new plants for bedding.

Lantana is easy to grow and tolerates dry and hot conditions. It is not fussy about the soil either. The flowers are orange, yellow and red. The umbels (flowers) on this particular Lantana are made up of individual yellow, orange and red flowers giving a nice bi-color feel. While photographing a Passion Flower vine, I saw the buds on the Lantana and noticed the interesting shape they had.