What it is
Texas Lantana (Lantana urticoides) is in the Verbenaceae family. A heat-proof, drought-proof native that blooms orange-and-yellow nonstop and feeds butterflies all summer.
How to grow it
It wants full sun, water it very low, and give it tolerant soil. Target a soil pH around 6.0–8.0. Space plants about 3 ft apart. Expect roughly Blooms first year. Hardy native perennial.
How it's used
Texas Lantana is used: ornamental; pollinator.
🔎 How to identify it
- Rough aromatic leaves
- Orange-to-red flower clusters
- Sprawling woody habit
Not for eating
How to grow & propagate texas lantana
Everything I've worked out about starting this one, keeping it alive through a Texas year, and turning one plant into many — free.
How to propagate texas lantana
Frogfruit spreads on its own — it roots at every node as it creeps along the ground — so the easiest way to make more is to lift a rooted section and replant it, or take short cuttings. Plant a few plugs and they knit together into a living mat.
Growing texas lantana in Texas
Give it full sun and tolerant soil. Match the spot to the plant and most of the battle is already won.
This one thrives in heat that flattens other plants, so it earns its space through a Texas summer. Get it established before the worst of July, keep water steady, and it'll produce when little else will.
Once it's rooted in, this is a low-water plant — overwatering does more harm than drought here. Water deeply to establish, then back off and let it prove how tough it is.
Harvesting
Figure on roughly blooms first year before you're harvesting.
Making more for free
If you want more, let your healthiest plants mature fully and collect the seed once it's dry on the plant — then store it somewhere cool, dark, and dry until next season.
Part of the free Texas Roots plant database, compiled by Jordan Polasek from his greenhouse in El Campo, Texas. Free to read and share. If it helped, the best thanks is to grow something.