I would take a ton of cuttings now. Some green some woody. When I've tried in the past very few grew roots (even with hormone).

Keep in mind that more than likely about the time they develop a bunch of new colors of hardy lantana the state will add them to the invasive plant list. They are banned in other southern states and its only a matter of time...

i took miss huff cuttings in early june; they rooted quickly. i called the nursery in juniper level where i bought the original plant and they said to get them in the ground no later than mid-august to ensure they "take" before cold weather. i planted them early august - they've branched out well and continued blooming, with little water (but a lot of mulch).

i took about 6" cuttings, dipped them in rooting hormone, and put them in individual clay pots with potting soil & extra sand. the cuttings started blooming about two weeks later.

a great choice for your greenway access. i can't say enough good things about this plant.

john
would miss huff be considered invasive? they don't self-sow. interesting that our experiences with rooting them have been so different! my cuttings were green.

Isn't Miss Huff like the Old Woman Who Lives in a Shoe? It seems that there are tons of babies surrounding her at all times. Just pull one up and you are good to go!

claire in sanford

well thank you all. i have never seen a ton of babies around the plant. it gets pretty big around, and i cut it back in the spring. maybe its the result of mulching but no babies. (quite a few other plants seem to self-sow though). i guess there is no harm trying to root some now and some in the spring. butterflies just love this plant, and i hope to have host plants in the area as well (i have had good luck starting fennel and milkweed from seed), so it would be great if this would take off well. i have a butterfly plant that did not take the summer heat without water very well at all, so i think i will limit nectar plants to lantana for now. the blooms on the butterfly (that new-ish bi-color variety) were much smaller this year, the plant was smaller, and it looks rather droopy. miss huff just looks terrific though.

Yeah, I've never had babies from mine, but I also haven't had a single cutting *not* root either. This has been an all around very easy plant for me. Extremely drought tolerant and yes the butterflies are all over it. Mine was a replacement for a butterfly bush that just didn't want to thrive where it was.
Dana

Both Miss Huff and Mozelle root very easily in most any potting medium WITHOUT using any hormone. I have rooted a good number from my plants already this summer and may try rooting some more (traded or gave away a good number of Mozelle at the Rutherfordton plant swap).

I did a little volunteer work at Hatcher Garden last Thursday, and it was a day to take fall cuttings to grow up for the Spring plant sale, and the first thing we did was take a bunch of cuttings of Mozelle and Miss Huff to start in the little 72-pack plant cell starters, which had just been filled with nothing but pine-bark soil conditioner.

You simply take each little branch and cut each piece into a little stem with enough bottom to go into the pot and a couple of leaves above that, cut in half so they don't require too much food, but photosynthesize enough to produce roots, put them in the potting medium, give them some sun and keep them watered. Right now, mine are dry and still thriving (although I'll get them watered this afternoon).

You should do just fine.

Mostly what we did (and I do) is take a long, woody stem cutting and then use all the side branches for the cuttings, and get three or four cuttings, usually, from each side branch (you need only a piece about 3-4" long with 2 leaves, cut in half, for each cutting). And then you can also take cuttings from the main stem, too, if it has leaves on it, as well... But I think the little, green stems will be easier to start.

Good luck!
Jeff

If and when the state bans lantana it may not be because Miss Huff produces viable seeds. If it contributes pollen to other cultivars it will be lumped together with them. Kinda like the way Bradford pears are supposed to be sterile but they pollinate other pears causing mutant pears that are a serious problem. In fact a bigger problem than lantana and the state hasn't done anything about them yet, so you've got years before you need to worry.

again, thank you all. jeff, what excellent directions! as good as hearing tony avent's propagation talk! thank you.

This is the first year I've ever planted ANY lantana.
Took a long time for the centers to offer Miss Huff but they had many other varieties available earlier.
Miss Huff..little bitty thing in a 3" pot grew..well, she's now about 4' in all directions but that might be because she's surrounded by tall coleus, elephant ears and lots of other 15-24" plants.

She doesn't seem to be making seeds like I recognize from other lantanas I've seen. A pod, yes but green with no seeds inside. Is that normal?

What a rude awakening about dear Miss Huff! I guess that's why she's a "miss" and not a "mrs."! Anyway, I am guilty of helping myself to some babies from a nearby home that has the most invasive crop of lantanas every year...everywhere, by the mailbox, along a stone wall, and tumbling down into the street, where I did my slippery finger routine. Countless little plants were under the huge bushes.

The reason I wanted some is that I have purchased Miss Huff in the past and had her die on me. I've been told that she is the ONLY perennial lantana for NC, so I assumed that this was Miss Huff herself, tried and true, and I wanted a piece of her brood. What type of lantana would this one be?

claire in sanford

I don't know the name of the one that produces the berries (and babies), Claire, but I currently have about 23 of these "babies" (I counted) coming up in my xeric bed, out at the end of our driveway. The lantana that produced all of those babies was a volunteer plant I discovered in our back yard last fall. When it went dormant, I dug it up and transplanted it into my xeric bed, not realizing how monsterously big it was going to get. I finally had to move it because it was taking over that particular bed and now I have loads of its babies in there that will need to be moved as well.
And 'Miss Huff' will produce the odd green berry every now and then. I have one Miss Huff in my garden, and the rest of my lantanas are all the berry-producing variety...whatever that one is. It seeds itself everywhere... birds love the berries. By the way, one Miss Huff, in time, will produce a lantana "hedge". My folks started out with one plant a few years ago, which has spread down the entire length of one side of the fence in their back yard. It's quite ugly in the winter. And both of these varieties of lantana are apparently perennial here...don't know about NC.

Renee

The one that produces berries is Mozelle. Both Mozelle and Miss Huff are hardy here, and as far as I know, they're the only two...

This is Mozelle in bloom in my bed...

{{gwi:585449}}

And this is Miss Huff...

{{gwi:585450}}

And inthegarden_k, thank you SO MUCH for the extremely kind compliment... you have me floating over here. But I think Tony Avent probably has more horticultural knowledge in his little finger than I do in my whole body (although based on his catalog [he wasn't there when I went for last fall's plant sale], he and I share a very similar sense of humor).

You have no idea how honored I feel... I'd say you risk giving me the "big head," but I don't think it's possible for much of me to get any bigger :-P (just ask Dottie).

Hope y'all enjoy your lantanas. I still plan to "stick" some more, so assuming they overwinter safely, I should have some to share next spring if anyone wants them, as I really don't have any other spots for them in my yard and I'm just making cuttings so I can have them to share.

Happy Gardening!
Jeff

Yes, Jeff and Rivers, that's the one with the babies! Beautiful, isn't she, for an invader!

Which one is the invader, Claire? Mozelle or Miss Huff?

Again, since I see berries only on my Mozelle, and it seems MUCH more prolific than the Miss Huff, I assume you're referring to Mozelle, but since I just posted TWO pictures and referred to TWO cultivars, your post is just a TAD vague, Claire...

You been hangin' out in that big pot? :-P
Jeff

I have a great, great aunt named Mozelle, who lives in North Carolina. Wonder which of them came first - the aunt or the plant? ; )

Renee

Hey, man! (as claire crawls out of the big pot)...You know, Jeff, I gotta judge strictly from the growth habit and the presence of all those bambinos that it is definitely Mozelle (my neighbor's sister's name...very southern, it seems). My stolen children are thriving beyond belief, but of course there are no flowers yet. The parent plants in bloom at the scene of my crime are all the blindingly bright orange and yellow (hookeresque and tasteless as they'd say at the antique rose forum... but just call me Gypsy R.).

Thanks for all this info...I get really excited when I learn something new...the nerd in me! When I got my weed book, and identified dog fennel and nutsedge...oooh what a rush!

peace, claire in sanford

The wild plant is just Lantana camara and though it is supposed to be of a set color scheme I have seen it vary slightly in the wilds of Florida and South Texas.

There is a pink form of hardy lantana called Athens Rose.

The plant is toxic and invasive and much hated by cattle ranchers (I guess moo moo's like to chew on it?).

I prefer to just buy already blooming plants in the spring rather than wait for Miss Huff to emerge. My yard is mostly shade so she sleeps in late, emerging sometimes as late as July. So she is now gone for good. Lantanas are cheap and available just about everywhere so instead of aiming for a perennial I just buy whatever color catches my eye in the spring and compost it the following winter. In my yard Miss Huff was too much of a good thing.

John you're being a SpoilSport!
(If I were YOU, Claire, I'd sneak onto JOHN'S property and steal something!) :-P

Seriously, I have a friend I met through AOL who lives near Bat Cave but spent most of her adult life in South Florida, and had a netfriend who lived in Miami until she passed away this past April...

BOTH consider Lantana camara a "smelly, noxious weed" and want no part of it... seems it's like a flowery kudzu down there, lol... Speaking of kudzu, the friend who lives near Bat Cave got the recipe for kudzu jelly, and since she's in the MIDDLE of kudzu country (lots grows on her four acres, plus lots more on nearby roadsides), she picks SCADS of the long blooms each July and August and makes and sells kudzu jelly.

She gave me a jar when I first met her this past February and it was very good... I saw her a few weeks back and bought a few more, and a friend was with me and bought a whole case to give as gifts... said it's so good he wants another case to give away (probably will include it with his Christmas stuff).

It's made from the blooms, since kudzu doesn't have a fruit, so to speak... long, purple blooms most people never even notice because the foilage is so thick. She also "harvests" a lot of small saplings and limbs that have been shaped into spirals by having kudzu grow up around them and uses them to make crafts, so there are uses for even kudzu many folks haven't thought of, I guess.

No truer words were ever spoken than "a weed is a flower out of place," huh?
Jeff

I might just do that to both of you...sometimes you give me more info than my little brain can handle. I was happy with Miss Huff and Mozelle, I'd mastered it! Now I'm a lantana idiot again!

claire in sanford

Is that anything like a Lantandiot?
Or would that be a Lantidiot???

Yeah, here we go... new word...

Lantidiot: One who cannot grow invasive hardy Lantana camara -- such as Miss Huff and Mozelle -- in Zones 7 and warmer.

Characterized by people with the following traits:

A. Resides in town named for TV character
B. Had it and lost it
C. Anyone else with B, but not necessarily A, or who cannot attain the first part of B to begin with.

Photo of typical syndrome victim:
(insert photo of Claire here)

:-P "snicker snicker snicker" (hug)
:)

Hey Jeff...I would advise you to go easy on the pup...her teeth are really sharp...ha Adele

ahem.
miss huff is not invasive.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

Miss Huff's not invasive, huh?

Well then don't growl too loudly, Claire -- seems I'm a "Lantidiot" too!

:)
Jeff

I know what you mean, Jeff. I went into Rooms To Go (a rare moment of thinking about the indoors) in Raleigh yesterday. There were mounds and mounds of lantana on each side of the entry. It must have been either Miss Huff gone absolutely berserk or it was annual lantana that's had professional treatment since April. Think it might be the latter b/c there were pastel yellows and pinks, sort of too subdued for Miss Huff. And here I go admitting this stuff...I looked underneath for babies, but none were found.

still trying to get it right, claire

Claire, I don't consider it "stealing" when you just take a few babies from a rapidly-spreding plant your neighbor has -- you're just doing them a favor -- thinning and pruning their plants for better health and future growth.

Kindly, from one Lantidiot to another :)
Jeff

Hey Claire and Jeff...I think I might just become a Lantidiot myself. We were getting rid of some annual lantana a week ago. I popped them out of the pots and into our big compost barrels to be thrown into our huge compost pile. Three days later they had not been emptied yet to the big pile. There were sitting in a big black barrel in scorching 90 degree weather with no water and they looked exactly the same as when I had unpotted them. I loudly announced to everyone there that I was going to pull everything up in my yard and plant lantana. Well of course I won't do that but it was amazing how wonderful they still looked. Adele

Hey, I'm not proud. I will gladly grow any species that thrives after it's been yanked and thrown on the junkpile. That's my kind of plant. I can identify with a plant such as that! Recently I found a piece of discarded aloe that is now my hero. No, Jeff, I didn't steal it.

Then there are those nervous nelly transplants, like annual sunflowers. You just can't trick them, not matter how careful and artful you are, they know they are moving and they really resent it! There is such a thing as being too grounded.

I've never taken cuttings but in the spring when the new growth was starting to emerge, I just dug some of the outer portion up and started new plants. They took and are blooming just fine-they are at a school and never got watered this drier then dry summer and they are against a brick wall in full sun.

KathyGa. I ordered four Miss Huff last year. They came in 3" pots and were

planted in fun sun. They grew like crazy, did not cut them back, but mulched

then heavy for winter. Come spring they were deader then a door knob????

I'm in North Ga. There us a restraint in the area that has four Huge ones I"m

going to try to get some cuttings and keep them in side this winter do you

think that would help getting them going. (in big buckets) Thanks.