How to grow a Lantana bonsai so the flowers are brilliantly colored and the blooming period lasts long

Lantana is nicknamed "five-color plum" and has very beautiful flowers - pale purple, purplish red, pink, orange-yellow, deep yellow and so on. It really is a riot of colorful flowers blooming on a single plant, beautiful and gaudy, and it truly is stunningly gorgeous. In places where lantana grows, you simply cannot find a single weed, especially beneath its branches and leaves - it kills off all the other plants and then multiplies unchecked, with very strong invasiveness.

To make lantana's flowers bloom more vividly and last longer, and to attract more butterflies, you need to master the following care techniques:

1. Choose deep, fertile, loose sandy loam. For potting soil, you can use a growing mix made by blending leaf mold, garden soil, vinegar residue and decomposed organic fertilizer in a ratio of 2:6:1.

2. Apply sufficient base fertilizer before planting. During the peak growth period (May to October), apply a thin, decomposed cake fertilizer solution or diluted human waste water once every 10 days. Fertilize promptly after flowering so that blooming continues.

3. For shaped plants, prune frequently to remove weak and diseased branches, and also cut back appropriately. After flowering, promptly remove the spent flowers.

4. During the growing period, provide ample light and keep the soil moist; during the flowering period especially, the soil must not be too dry.

5. In winter, move the plant indoors for care, stop fertilizing, and control watering. The temperature must be kept above 10°C. Prune overly long new branches appropriately. Before bringing it out in the second spring, repot it and apply base fertilizer.