Lantana root over rock

[edprocoat]

This is a Lantana flowering plant that I see growing wild all over Florida. I found it in the local Home Depot here in Ohio, it was almost dead, all the leaves were gone but some of the stems were supple and I figured it may live, besides it was just a quarter in the closeout section. I decided to try growing it over a small rock in a small container so I trimmed all the dead stuff off and most the fine roots. As Lantana seems to flourish in Fl. sand I mixed 3 parts white playsand with 1 part potting soil and arranged the roots over the rock and wrapped it in the Home Depot plastic bag and fastened the plastic with black duct tape. Then I watered the sand mix into the bag. I made the pot out of a $2.00 dish from Odd Lots which I drilled a hole in the bottom and made a screen out of a piece I cut from a diet sprite can and poked holes in it with a mini pick and wired it into the hole. I used that stick epoxy to make the feet for the pot. I acquired this about 5 weeks ago and it seems to be doing fine, its also starting to bud with flowers already. I plan to remove the two center branches as they seem to have died. What do you guys think so far?

The flowering bud is at the top right and there is one more right behind it. The fine roots have grown into the soil beneath the rock already and actually held it in place four days ago when my son knocked the rock almost out of the container! I put the rocks around the bottom to hold the main rock more steady and they will be removed to.

ed

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Ed not sure how I missed this post. I have lantana all over my yard, and they are interesting plants. I find them to be difficult to get established, but once established to be very heat and drought tolerant. I don't know how convincing they will be as bonsai - they have nice woody stems as larger plants but they throw long runners of growth. If you are successful keeping them well-ramified you might be able to keep them small. I'll bet a flowering lantana bonsai would be stunning.

 

[will0911]

Im actually trying this myself! They are very hardy and tough little plants! I think they are tropical and plan to bring mine in the house for winter...correct ne if im wrong but they seem to die to the ground for winter then comeback in early spring.

 

[jk_lewis]

Yes, in Pace they are usually not winter hardy. Anywhere south of Gainesville, however, they are fine for all year long. If I recall, Ed Trout has a very fine specimen of Lantana bonsai. I've seen it on one forum or another over they years.

 

[will0911]

Thanks jkl! So is bringing it inside ok...

 

[grouper52]

Lantana are used as bonsai by the Chinese in warmer regions, and can make lovely bonsai. There are a small number of them pictured in the Chinese compilation books I enjoy, and Robert Cho used to have a lovely old double trunk specimen in his tropical greenhouse over near Seattle.

Good luck with your ROR project!

 

[bumblebee]

In a pot, Lantana like a lot of water, unlike in the ground where they are drought tolerant. Don't let it dry out completely for very long at all.

Libby

 

[Bonsai Nut]

I have problems with lantana getting into my bougainvillea hedge It grows wild in places in my yard. It is one of the few plants that, when established, will grow with no artificial watering (and in Southern California that means a lot). Here's a big bush in my front yard:

 

[edprocoat]

B-Nut, this has put out three flowers so far, its a yellow flowering variety. I would love the kind I see in Fl. with the two color pink-orange blooms. I see they put out long stems, I am letting it grow, just removing the dead flowers after they drop. I left the first one and its forming something, I am not sure if its a fruit? It look almost like a green sea urchin, kind of a orb with spikes on it all green.

I hope to keep it small and develop it over the rock, I wish I would have found a more interesting rock but Ohio rocks are not that spectacular, at least what I find.
Starting to open

After the first one died off

ed

 

[edprocoat]

Well, this sucks. I took this plant and my Fukien Tea out to water them earlier as its 65 and breezy here today in ohio. I was looking at this thread and figured I better put them away as its going down to 49 this evening. I walked outside and around the corner I heard my son talking with his friends, " Man, dad is gonna kill me" and his cohort " Just stick it back in the pot and he will never know" my son replied, " I better tell dad maybe he can fix it" his cohort " Please don't tell him it was my fault man" My heart sank, my Tea I have had for a few years and although its not a specimen by any means I really like it as its unique looking. I decided to walk back in and wait to see what my son would decide to do. I was getting jumpy as 10 minutes had passed since I overheard them when my son come in and said " Dad, sorry, I was tossing football when I hit your plant and knocked it out of the pot, think you can fix it?"

I asked him which one it was and he said the one on the rock. I was actually thrilled as I have less attachment to the Lantana than the Tea. I went outside and the plant had came totally out of the pot, rock and all intact. After taking it inside I noticed there were three long roots still in the moist soil detached from the plant. I removed them one was over 5 inches long and the other two over three inches. This was neat as when I planted it there was nothing hanging out below the rock. I stuck it back in the soil and took a few pics of it to show the spike thing that was once a flower and all the back budding that has occured in a relatively short time. I hope it survives as its a real quick growing plant, the large root was the diameter of the big new branch. Then again this may be the last live picture of my Lantana ROR Bonsai.

I let my son live, I actually did not even yell at him as I was so proud that he did the right thing by telling me and not sticking it back in the pot and in effect lying to me by omission of the truth. Kind of made me feel that I did a good job as a father, but I am a softy at times...

Front side, after the fall.
Back side.

I hope it survives.

ed

 

[jason biggs]

Sorry boys, have to disagree with this one.In S.A. lantana is our most destructive invasive species...+ Greg although your hedge looks great,i have to liken it to a bighead carp in the great lakes system....

 

[Bonsai Nut]

Sorry boys, have to disagree with this one.In S.A. lantana is our most destructive invasive species...+ Greg although your hedge looks great,i have to liken it to a bighead carp in the great lakes system....

Interesting... here is isn't a problem, that I am aware of. I don't think it can spread on its own because it will die if not watered for the first several years (it needs to get large bush size to survive without water). They certainly sell enough of it in garden centers.

Reminds me of Pampas Grass. Where are my parents live it is an ornamental and rather expensive to purchase. Here it is an invasive "noxious" species - the second you see even a tiny leaf, you dig it up and toss it. When I first moved to California, I had a slope that got one small plant established. I thought it looked pretty. In 5 years it had taken over the entire slope, had shaded out / killed several large landscape shrubs, and was threatening to move into my back yard. It was too big to cut with shears. It was too deeply established to dig with a shovel. I ended up using a chain saw (with numerous blades) and a stump grinder, and it took me over a week to clear about 300 square feet. The leaves and stems formed a pile over four feet deep 30' long. I had to hire someone to come take the green waste away. Now I know Any time I see a yard with Pampas Grass in it I shudder because it WILL have to be removed - people just don't understand how insidious and destructive it is until it gets too established and becomes a huge problem.

 

[edprocoat]

I know it grows wild all over Florida and its beautiful. I have not heard it being considered invasive here in the states though. Though I know a native plant of Japan and China called Kudzu has destroyed untold millions of acres of land throughout the south, and its a harmless natural plant in its native zone, similiar is the Spanish moss which covers and chokes out trees in the south.

ed

 

[Ang3lfir3]

While looking through a really old bonsai publication from Cali I spotted a full sized Lantana among the pages.....

 

[Bonsai Nut]

While looking through a really old bonsai publication from Cali I spotted a full sized Lantana among the pages.....

That is an amazing trunk for this species. I would have never believed they got that woody.

 

[Ang3lfir3]

The book is International Bonsai Digest presents Bonsai Gems .... Fall 1974 (before I was born) ... pretty interesting book and its nice to see the early images of trees I have come to know hidden away in these early books....

the tree was owned by Takashi Okazaki and at the time was 28" tall.... it was estimated to be at least 50yrs old then so that would make it nearly 90yrs old today.

 

[edprocoat]

Bonsai Nut, even the small one I have has a very woody looking trunk, and roots for that matter. The trunk has bark that is reminiscent of a mature Oak tree, its hard to see in the pics the size you can post here, but they have nice looking trunks very early.

ed

 

[edprocoat]

Well this lantana put out six flowers at once. An old lady wheeled up to me on a mobility chair with a pot, an 8 inch ceramic pot that was glazed on the outside bright pink and had dozens of polka dots in blue, orange, green, yellow and red. It looked like a circus tent wrapped around a pot! She said "That plant would look loveley in this pot, so I am going to give it to you" I tried to politely refuse but she handed it to me and told me she had a lantana with the very same flowers for years she kept in her glass hot tub room on the back of her house in canada, and it was beautiful in a pot just like this one. She added that when she would soak in her hot tub for therapy it brightened up the place and cheered her up. I took the pot and was hoping she would move the next day, I am on an rv park for the winter in Florida, but the next day I was walking around when I seen her Motor home, one of those Provost buses about 60 feet long and about ten plants in the same type of polka dot pots. These pots were dog-butt ugly! She also had several other polka dot covered lawn ornaments, and two polka dot lawn chairs.

To make a long story short I took the plant and potted it the polka dot pot and brought it down to her and gave her it, she offered me $10, which I refused and she almost cried she was so happy. Oddly enough it was the greatest end to a Bonsai project I have ever experienced.

ed

 

[Randy]

I think perhaps you just might have been conned my good sir. Just think. See spots her mark (thats you with your lovely Lantana) and convinces you that your plant would look just peaches in her decor. Suddenly you agree and out of the depths of your good soul you return her pot, with the plant she so subtly desires!

Canucks are crafty folk...

 

[edprocoat]

I think perhaps you just might have been conned my good sir. Just think. See spots her mark (thats you with your lovely Lantana) and convinces you that your plant would look just peaches in her decor. Suddenly you agree and out of the depths of your good soul you return her pot, with the plant she so subtly desires!

Canucks are crafty folk...

LOl, you are devious minded! As for her convincing me, the pot was a blasphemy to nature! and she never asked for it she just gave it to me. But it seemed to make her happy, and afterall thats why I grow things to make me happy, if I was conned I am still happy so its a win for me.

ed