It’s important to order Lantanas early if you want to guarantee your supply. These are popular plants for both landscapers and retailers here in Cincinnati because they like it dry and they don’t require a lot of feed. Basically, anyone can plant them and then go about their business; once Lantanas are established, they don’t even need watering.

The Landmark Lantana is our reference point for what a standard Lantana delivers today. It’s a good all-around plant that serves as a petunia replacement, although it doesn’t fit every situation. It has an upright habit, likes to grow, and fills its space nicely. We like to design Landmarks into bigger containers and larger landscaping spaces.

Violas outsell pansies in Europe by huge numbers. Hardiness is certainly a factor—their winters are cold and wet, and the survival rate on violas is higher. Other factors are style and design. Violas favor a European look that emphasizes large blocks of clean colors. Even better: the viola can hold that color in place for a long, long time.

European breeders have responded to the demand by emphasizing violas with, frankly, phenomenal holding power. Violas will bloom before the pansies start, and they keep blooming consistently well after the pansies have petered out. The color pretty much lasts until the heat kicks in, around late spring and early summer. Our new cultivars have excellent landscape performance—they spread further and bloom earlier, longer and hardier than traditional varieties.

Two plants that complement each other surprisingly well are mums and pansies. They have a chocolate and peanut butter relationship: each is good on its own, but they are classic when they are combined.

Here is a simple but effective example. Notice that the pansy eyes pick up the same yellow as the mums. The colors are also very clean.

Though many people approach mums as a relentless crop of ho-hum flowers, you can stand out in the crowd with a quality display of interesting mums. The modern decor mum dominates autumn because of its incredible genetic diversity, and this characteristic flaunts itself in the collection of mums we offer.

To start, there are two major types of mum flowers. One is an open-face, daisy-style bloom that is available in both singles and doubles. There are different types of daisy-style blooms, as shown with the sample flowers above, but they all have a clearly seen eye.