Press Releases

Pick the Perfect Patriot™: New Categories Aid Garden Design

GRAIN VALLEY, MISSOURI, January 2003. Driven by his passion for stunning new lantana colors and forms, award-winning plant breeder Dr. R.J. Roberson has created an amazing array of 17 Patriot™ lantana varieties, including three new varieties for 2003. To help the discriminating gardener select the perfect Patriot™ for any landscape application, Dr. Roberson has organized the Patriot™ ranks by size and form into five product groups: Patriot™ Pillars™, Patriot™ Classics™, Patriot™ Ponies™, Patriot™ Petites™, and Patriot™ Weepers™.

Patriot™ Pillar™ lantanas are large mounding forms (42 to 60 inches tall and wide) that will grow rapidly. Ideal for fast-growing summer hedges, they also will be winners as specimen patio standards and in mass plantings for large spaces.

Patriot™ Classic™ lantanas are average sized mounding forms (30 to 42 tall and wide) in a wide variety of colors. They are tops for massed plantings, specimen standards or as a flowering summer hedge.

Patriot™ Ponies™ are lantanas with a semi-compact mounding growth pattern (18 to 28 inches tall and wide). The plants of this series make good garden borders for taller plants as well as colorful massed plantings.

Patriot™ Petites™ are among the smallest of the new lantana series, growing in compact mounding forms (12 to 18 inches tall and wide). They make wonderful low ground covers, colorful border plantings and unusual bonsai specimen plants.

Patriot™ Weepers™ are lantanas with a weeping, recumbent pattern of growth (12 to 18 inches tall by 24 to 36 inches wide or long). These lantanas are equally beautiful as ground covers, cascading over walls or in hanging baskets.

Lantanas are tender perennials (Zones 9-10), are extremely heat tolerant and, once established, will thrive with very little care. An added bonus—they attract butterflies by the hordes. These five Patriot™ groups offer a good variety of garden applications and uses in a rainbow of color choices across 17 varieties. Patriot™ lantanas are bound to please discriminating gardeners.