Yes, we don't own any packages of stuff that kills anything.
I wish I could answer the Lantana questions! Yes, this is a shrub (by the end of the year,) though the way it dies to the ground, 'feels' like a perennial to me. I think some of the confusion about hardiness comes from the way it's not evergreen like farther south. There's so many of them in this area, it's definitely not marginally hardy here, but extremely hardy. When I first asked about Persian shield after moving here, several people told me it would probably come back from the roots, but not be hardy. Coming from OH, anything coming back from the roots is hardy, all anybody expects, anything but dead = hardy. The calling of any plants "only root hardy" was something I'd not heard of before moving south. Depends on the winter anyway, last winter Lantana was evergreen, and blooming profusely by March (but still not Persian shield.)
Although they make tons of seed balls, if I've ever pulled any Lantana sprouts, I sure didn't recognize (or smell) them. I pull a million sprouts every year, but have never thought a single one was Lantana. Since I'm just a few miles from the border, I looked again just now. It's not listed on FL's noxious weed list, though is discussed an an economic pest:
http://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/nod...
I've never seen what looked like 'wild Lantana,' just purposely planted landscaping around houses. Maybe the germination of seeds is only prolific farther south? (I drive down dirt roads looking for wildflowers, I think I would have seen at least one if it was 'weedy here.')
Within the growing season here, usually gets 6+ feet tall, 8+ feet wide. Not for most small beds, but I do have one in a corner that I let sprawl through to the outside of the fence, but trim the inside part once a month or so while it's growing so it doesn't bully the other shrubs until they're big enough to successfully co-exist (Buddleia, KO rose, a climbing rose and Passiflora on the fence, some bulbs that bloom before the shrubs get huge.) Lots of good stuff for the compost pile from that, already here when I moved in, MY idea to put the other stuff around it. Looks just like the one in your pic, but the pink is very faint, usually just looks orange.
