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What is this please?
I am staying for a week in Malta and on a walk in the public gardens (which were interesting but suffering from only 9 inches of rain this year) spotted this shrub grown as a hedge and covered with bees. I am sure someone knows what it is and more importanly will it grow in Weymouth, Dorset?
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It is a Lantana
The original scientific name of Lantana horrida refers to the strong smell of the leaves that can affect sensitive persons. Thankfully, botanist August von Hayek re-named it Lantana urticoides, calling upon its resemblance with nettles (the Urtica family) in this new name; urticoides just means “like a nettle”.
Not sure that it is frost hardy enough for most of Britain as a perennial.
Lovely park very coloufull,
yes Lantana pretty plant but not frost hardy sold in G B as a annual.
I am going to have a go, I love a challenge.
If you have somewhere to keep it over winter it makes a nice shrub - I bought one as a standard and put it in my (heated) back porch over winter, then give it an airing in summer (if we ever get one!). The flowers are pretty and I like the way they change colour and I don't find the smell that bad - a bit sagey perhaps. I believe Chiltern sell packets of seed.
It's really pretty but very toxic to animals - beware if you have a dog which chews things.
I have one growing this year. I grew it from a cutting I took in Kalkan Turkey last September . I kept it on the kitchen windowsill over winter and its been outside since early May. Seems to be doing ok but I will keep it back on the windowsill when it gets cold this Autumn .