When i lived on the coast and the frost did not kill it back, I pruned mine back even more than you have. Don't worry, it will come back better than ever. Al

I'm placing all my bets on the lantana. I would have thinned the remaining branches out even more [although it does have an interesting sculptural look now-- :) ]. As it grows back, you should pinch the growing tips periodically so that they will branch and become dense enough to cover the bare stems quicker. Lantanas are vigorous plants--think of their root system as a locomotive power source that is currently pushing the foliage equivalent of a peanut. IMO, you have to try a lot harder if you want to kill it.

I think it will be fine also. I've only grown the purple and yellow ground cover type. I hacked mine back also each year and it came back more vigorous. But just took it all out. Got tired of the frost damage and dead look all winter from Dec until now.

Thanks for the boost of confidence, everyone. As my screen name implies, I love these plants!
It's confusing when you hear to only remove 1/3 of the plant at a time, yet they can be hard pruned down to almost nothing... Is that because most hard pruned lantana's are already full of dead leaves and branches by the time they're hacked to the ground and 1/3 isn't really removed in the final stage? I feel like I removed a majority of this plant.

UPDATE: The lantana has come back full force!
For about a week I had an obscure stick statue in the yard. Next thing you know, it started sprouting new growth everywhere. This is what has happened in the last 4 weeks. New flowers have even begun to show their buds.
I decided to update this I case someone else ever hacked their lantana and needs some reassurance.

Well, there you go. I think I won $.04 for my winning bet. Thanks for the follow-up. And your neighbor has learned something about growing lantanas, too. :-)

Glad to see this as we have several large lantanas with an inner framework of dead wood which looks terrible after trimming. I've wondered how far I can cut them back. I recently had the same experience with a huge bushy rose that hadn't been attended to in 20? years. Full of dead wood, size of a minivan. Cut it back to a similar stick statue, and now three months later it's thriving and green.

Glad to see that! I have to prune a lantana hard in preparation to get my house painted. It's one of the first plants I put in when I bought my house 17 years ago and I'd hate to lose it.

I say 'Go for it!'. I posted this picture 6 days ago and today it has twice as much foliage as it did then, and it's already covered with flowers. As soon as a few of the flowers are spent, I'm gonna pinch the new growth back a bit to get an even bushier plant, per Gyr-Falcon's advice.

Yep! A Lantana is a weed, a pretty weed, but you can't kill it! Prune on!
Suzi