Saturday, April 10, 2010

a new addition to the garden

Pic 1: lantana

Pic 2: lantana

Pic 3: lantana


A quick stop in Sungai Buloh recently resulted in a purchase of 3 polybags of lantana for 10 Malaysian Ringgit.  They are of dwarf type: short with plenty of multicoloured flowers. Kakdah decided to put them in 3 medium sized pots. Standard information about Lantana mentions it as a genus of  about 150 perennial flowering plants natives to the tropical regions of Americas and Africa. Click for more here: Lantana


This new addition to the garden will add to the colors  which for a while has been all green. Sunflower has not bloomed yet, brinjal and tomato has little flowers that is not too impactful. Lantana will give the little garden of ours a bigger spectrum of colors.

And it offers an opportunity in trying cuttings as lantana propagation. Lantana can be propagated  from greenwood or semi- ripe stem cuttings. Make 3 inch cuttings off non-flowering shoots. Strip off any leaves that come in contact with rooting medium and the soil.  Dip the ends in a hormone rooting medium and insert in a moist, well drained, soil made of peat moss and sand or perlite. Cuttings also root well in rockwood plugs.   Cover the container with a clear plastic bag and keep in a spot with bright filtered light. It should root in 2-3 weeks. When you see new growth emerging uncover your container and place it in brighter light and start to lightly fertilize every 2 weeks to promote healthy new growth. When the plants have about 2-3 inches of new growth, pinch the tips to encourage bushy growth. The following spring repot plants in individual pots. Young rooted plants usually bloom more profusely than older plants. Click for more here:Gardening Advice/Tips/Secrets 

 





bangchik
Putrajaya, Malaysia

20 comments:

  1. Lantanas are so very pretty! -Good purchase!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh the butterflies and bees are going to love you for the pretty lantana. You will be able to catch some great shots from them. I just love them and yours are all so pretty. I sent for a grape on this spring to add to the bunch.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh! You're going to have so many butterflies in your garden ... lucky you!
    Those are really pretty lantana, especially the first one.

    ReplyDelete
  4. these are so pretty - I am thinking of having one this summer too only mine will have to come in for the winter.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lantana is a great plant! They are excellent for attracting butterflies and pollinators here. Enjoy!

    ReplyDelete
  6. How sweet and lovely. Thanks also for all the information on them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. those are beautiful...although here in hawaii, they are quite invasive because the birds spread the seed everywhere, i still like them everywhere

    ReplyDelete
  8. This is very similar to the lantana I grow every year here. I love the colors, and they are an easy care plant that can take our hot,humid summers. I will be planting some soon!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Where I garden, lantana is used as a container annual. We see it in blues, violets, purples, pinks, and white. Never seen some of the wild colors in your pics. It's still somewhat unusual here.

    Christine in Alaska

    ReplyDelete
  10. I tried Lantana for the first time last summer and loved it. It's an annual here, but grew really quickly until our first frost. The butterflies are supposed to love it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your lantana are so beautiful. Lantana is one of my favorite plants and I have yellow, purple and multi-colored varieties. We are able to grow them year-round as I expect you can as well.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Very good buy! This one never fail to show its blooms and really hardy :-D Lantana is always charming especially this dwarf variety.

    ReplyDelete
  13. There will certainly be some colour in your vegetable garden now. The flowers are so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a great coincidence! I got myself a yellow Lantana from the market in PJ's SS2 today. Mine was priced at RM4 per plant. The bright sunny yellow & orange colour combinations is beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lantana will be a wonderful year-round plant for you! Here (in the metro Washington DC area) we must treat it as an annual but I always love including it in container plantings for my clients.

    Thanks for adding my blog to your list!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Katarina
    Hocking Hills Gardener
    Sunita
    Rosie leavesnbloom
    Jeanne
    Poetic Shutterbug
    noel
    Stephanie
    Jo
    AaronVFT
    J.C.
    Melissa

    ~ Thanks everyone for your visit and comments.

    ~ There is something about Lantana that attract me most other than the abundance of flowers and the range of colours. Lantana is somehow WILD to me..., every part of the plant is reflecting the wilderness, like a wild horse, domesticated and tamed, but every inch a wild horse.

    ~ There is one wild plant almost like Lantana, growing wild along the roadside and countryside in Malaysia. It produce yellowish coloured flower, and its stems are not woody which can easily be snapped. That plant has the ability to grow, spread and stay low, inching its way for dominance. Such a wild plant.

    ~ And our Lantana has images of the wild one.

    ~ About butterflies coming to lantana, that is a real warning. What do I do to balance the effect of butterflies, hovering and eventually laying eggs somewhere. Then there will be caterpillars all over the leafy vegetables having the best feast of their short life. That will be difficult!....

    Oh Well... we can win all... there must a balance somewhere, an equilibirium.

    Thanks.
    ~ bangchik
    Putrajaya Malaysia

    ReplyDelete
  17. debsgarden
    Christine B.
    Catherine@AGardenerinProgress
    Noelle

    Thanks...., each has its own specific colour.., therefore 3 different colours. One thing I really wish to do soon is to propagate through cuttings. Lets see...

    Kakdah will handle the plants within the circumference of health and beauty, and I handle the WHATS NEXT... that is the propagation.

    ~bangchik

    ReplyDelete
  18. Thanks for the info on lantana, didn't know that you could start it from cuttings. I'm partial to the one in the first photo, my favorite colors.

    ReplyDelete
  19. ~ Lanny
    I am going to try that Lanny, cuttings, and see what will happen..

    ~bangchik

    ReplyDelete
  20. Hi, where can i buy it at Sungai Buloh ? or any other places in KL ?

    ReplyDelete