On Gardening: A Luscious Vanilla Breeze will debut next year

Norman Winter, Tribune News Service on Aug 6, 2026

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If you’ve been looking for a plump 24- to 30-inch-tall-and-wide white lantana, then you are about to have a new ingredient for all your mixed container and border designs. This breakthrough variety is called Luscious Vanilla Breeze.

The flowers open a soft yellow, but as The Garden Guy watches them every day, white is the color — or should I say lack of color — that I see. It is truly a beautiful selection. Luscious Vanilla Breeze will be the flowers you see on your patio or deck at dusk, and the look on a moonlit night will be magical.

Like all of the other Luscious Lantana varieties Vanilla Breeze will attract pollinators; bees, hummingbirds, and butterflies large and small will all visit. I assure you that seeing a large black female eastern tiger swallowtail getting nectar from white Vanilla Breeze blossoms is a sight to behold and remember.

Luscious Lantanas like Vanilla Breeze are cold hardy in zones 9a and warmer, but I've never lost one in my zone 8 garden. I also have pretty good soil and no bogs, which helps. So, I am expecting similar results with Vanilla Breeze. Even if you grow them as an annual, they are worth every penny and easier than many other flowers.

The Young’s Plant Farm Annual Garden Tour in Auburn, Alabama, showed Luscious Vanilla Breeze in a raised display bed where everyone could visualize it as a ground cover or even a small blooming shrub. In this type of application, plan on spacing your plants 10 to 15 inches apart.

Your combination possibilities are limited only by your imagination. When I look at the Vanilla Breeze blooms, I see hints of blue. One second, it’s there, the next it is gone. I have old eyes, so it is most likely not there. On the other hand, I can tell you for sure that Supertunia Tiara Blue and Supertunia Mini Vista Indigo make beautiful partnerships. Add some red and "Old Glory" will suddenly be in bloom on your front porch.

I have also partnered Luscious Vanilla Breeze with Superbells Yellow calibrachoa and Supertunia Mini Vista Pink Cloud petunias. The look is certainly that of a cheerful spring bouquet. But I think the partnership that just rattles the mind is with the new Sun Pendants Hot Pink fuchsia.

The Sun Pendants Hot Pink fuchsia tricks everyone into thinking it’s wimpy and delicate but in reality it is tough and able to hang with lantanas like the new Luscious Vanilla Breeze for a look as rare as any in the garden.

I am a Luscious Lantana lover of the first order. They are carefree; no deadheading is required. Just plant in fertile soil, with plenty of sun. Containers that are watered daily will need feeding to keep those blooming buds in development. Use water-soluble mix or controlled released granules per formula recommendation.

I get pumped seeing my Royale Red Zone, Royle Cosmo and the Basket Tangeglow with butterflies and hummingbirds. There are now 11 colors or selections in the series. The new Luscious Vanilla Breeze will be the most beautiful white lantana you have ever grown. Put it on your list for 2027 and add it to your beds and borders.

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(Norman Winter, horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” Follow him on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy.)

(NOTE TO EDITORS: Norman Winter receives complimentary plants to review from the companies he covers.)