Lantana Montevidensis ‘Luscious Grape’

Purple Trailing Lantana for Pollinators

Lantana montevidensis ‘luscious grape’, common names: trailing grape lantana, lavender lantana, purple lantana, purple trailing lantana, Sellow’s lantana, weeping lantana, former botanical name was Lantana sellowina

'Luscious Grape' Lantana Camara is a trailing lantana plant that works well as a container spiller or in raised beds. It attracts butterflies and other beneficial pollinators right to your garden doorstep.

Purple Trailing Lantana Plant Specs

  • Perennial flower for USDA hardiness zones 9a-11 (lows to -6.7 °C or 20 °F)
  • Annual plant for colder regions
  • Full sun to part shade
  • Height: 10 to 14 in
  • Spacing: 2 to 3 ft
  • Trails up to 3 ft
  • Flowers: purple with white and yellow centers
  • Blooms all season until first frost

Purple Trailing Lantana Pros

  • Long bloom period
  • Small serrated leaves a striking contrast with bright purple blooms
  • Trailing flowers look stunning cascading from raised beds or lantana pots
  • No serious pest issues
  • In the running for prettiest purple garden flower

Trailing Purple Lantana Cons

  • Must be regularly deadheaded- blooms prolifically with pruning!
  • Too short to be fully appreciated in some areas of the garden
  • Monarchs did not visit this trailing variety and preferred lantana camara plants
  • Lantana is a potentially poisonous plant to pets and small children if consumed in large quantities.

An option to grow this safely would be to put it in a hanging basket.

Purple Trailing Lantana Plant Propagation

  • Herbaceous stem cuttings
'Luscious Grape' lantana blooms are a popular nectar source for swallowtail  butterflies and other precious pollinators. This trailing lantana works well as a container spiller or in raised beds.

Trailing Lantana Growing Tips

  • Deadhead every few days for a bounty of beautiful blooms
  • Fertilize with an water soluble fertilizer that promotes flowering every 1 to 2 weeks or as needed in warmer or colder conditions
  • Average water needs. Don’t overwater.
  • Can be utilized as a climbing plant with use of trellis or arbor support
skipper butterflies flock to trailing purple lantana in raised bed
Skippers Sipping Grape Goodness

Pollinator Plus

This nectar plant also attracts bumblebees, eastern tiger swallowtails, gulf fritillaries, hummingbirds, skippers, and more…(please report what butterflies/pollinators this has attracted to your garden in a comment below.)

Many websites, books, and nurseries suggest planting lantana in your butterfly garden, which insinuates all lantana varieties contain the same nectar content and will be equally attractive to all butterflies.

We had tiger swallowtails all over our trailing grape lantana last season, but they didn’t touch our ‘bandana’ lantana camara plants in the next raised bed over.

This suggests not all lantana species have the same nectar content…try a trailing lantana variety and a non-trailing lantana type to see if you notice a difference?

Trailing Luscious Grape Lantana has been an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail favorite in our butterfly garden.  Some tiger females come in dark form to mimic the poisonous pipevine swallowtail. More butterfly on grape lantana photos...
Dark Form Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Buy Trailing Grape Lantana Montevidensis for your garden:

1. Luscious Grape Trailing Lantana Plants on Etsy

2. Find More Purple Trailing Lantana on Amazon

3. Find Lantana Camara varieties on our Butterfly Flowers Page


Please post below if you have any questions or comments about growing purple trailing lantana in your garden:

Share the Joy of Butterflies

8 Comments

  1. Hi Tony: Is trailing lantana easy to grow from seed? If so, any suggestions? Thank you!

    1. I’m not sure about this Kathy…it might be under license and not available as seed. I have not seen seeds available before but you can check here:

      Lantana Plants Info otherwise, cuttings or plants should not be too expensive

  2. Tony,
    I have planted various Lantanas in my butterfly garden in East Tenn for many years.
    I have noticed that orange butterflies like orange and yellow butterflies like yellow so that is what I plant now. My dogs love to eat the leaves and blooms and it has never bothered them and my young Grandboys don’t like the smell of it and eat the mint and basil instead. I use wire fencing to keep the dogs away so it can thrive.
    My yellow and orange and mixed purple, red, orange varieties have occasionally attracted zebra and giant swallowtails along with thousands of skippers, including longtails, and many swallowtails and fritillaries. In my planter bed the lantana seeds itself every year coming out about June 1.
    Excellent plant for pots or planters and mine have never needed much deadheading and have survived forgetful waters many times.

  3. Hi Tony, been following you for quite some time now: keep it up!
    I’ve had extensive experience with lantanas when living in California, and find your observations the same as mine. Purple Lantana montevidensis is a sure bet for attracting swallowtail species to a garden, and to a lesser extent, other types of butterflies. I have observed that the yellows to reds Lantana camara will entice a greater variety of butterflies, especially the skipper species.
    I now live in a part of Arizona that freezes and gets snow periodically. I’ve tried planting ‘Miss Huff’ and overwintering it in the pollinator garden, but it doesn’t make it. Unfortunately, I have no room for overwintering plants indoors.

    1. thanks Andy for correcting me on the actual species name for trailing lantana…it took a while, but it’s finally been corrected! 😎

  4. In Texas, we do get some freezing days. My Lantana is in a hanging planter, drips water out quickly. What should our winter plans be to save this planter?? Do they need sun in winter? Maybe putting in garage will not be good. Other Lantana is in ground and comes back each year. Do I have to bring in my 5 inch new Milkweed cutting finally growing in the garden. Have netting over it to keep deer out. Thanks, bobbie

    1. Hi Bobbie, if milkweed is perennial to your region, I would leave it outside so it can go through its natural growth cycle. For gardening info specific to your region check out some of the resources here: butterfly gardening groups

  5. I had the same experience with Bandana Lantana as well as some of the hybrid Echinaceas…. no butterfly interest

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