Lantana is one of those maverick plants that actually does best when it gets so hot and miserable outside that all but the most dedicated gardeners call a two month hiatus to await more hospitable conditions. New Gold is a 2000 Arkansas Select plant that was chosen by a coalition of individuals from the University of Arkansas Horticulture Department, the Cooperative Extension Service and the Arkansas Nurseryman s Association. Most Arkansas nurseries and greenhouses will have New Gold this spring. New Gold Lantana is a semi-hardy perennial that is best treated as an annual in the garden. 2-inch clusters of blooms which are produced above the foliage.
Lantanas bloom in a dense head with individual florets tubular, with four or five lobes.
Some lantana selections produce clusters of black berries which are considered poisonous, but New Gold is almost completely fruitless. The poisonous properties are considered of importance to ranchers because in subtropical areas of Florida, Texas and Hawaii lantana has escaped into pasture lands. No reports of human death have ever been attributed to lantana berries. The genus lantana consists of over 150 species, mostly of tropical parts of the Americas from which this species originates. It has long been cultivated as an ornamental, but French breeders developed the modern forms in the color ranges we know today at the close of the 19th century.