I also live in MA, as you see, and have grown lavender lantanas in hanging baskets for many years. They are most certainly not drought tolerant--whoever told you this was wrong. I water and fertilize every single day. 1/4 teaspoon miracle gro to one gallon of water. Water til the water is coming out of the bottom of the basket. You will get large plants packed with flowers all summer. They need full sun here. And water every day--twice when it's in the 90s. And the fertilizer--or few flowers. It's a lot easier than it sounds and the results are gorgeous.

It's one of the hybrid Portulaca oleracea (purslane). This plant will require plenty of bright, full sun in order to thrive. Give it an occasional haircut in order to keep it full and flowering.

Hi Ellie. I also have lots of hanging baskets and balcony containers. Anyway, what I do with mine is I water the baskets every day and I do them by hand with one of those 2 gallon watering cans and every time I water I use 20-20-20 or 15-30-15 at 1/2 of the recommened. This is optional because there are a lot of folks who just fertilize once per weeks and I'm sure the containers do just fine. Those containers have a lot of roots with a lot of competition and plants like the supertunias needs fertilizer. I love using the "symphony" series of osteos cause they are smaller but if they are deadheaded, they bloom continuously. Pinch the dead flower right off. The supertunias are easy to control because you can just trim them with scissors as much as you want to give the container a shaped look so it doesn look "scraggly". They like the "haircut" as well because it fill out the middle.

DAZED, were you talking about the calibrachoa or the torenia? The calibrachoa is probably only about 4-5 plants -- I'll try to remember to check my baskets at home that the nursery put together... those are fully bushed out and trailing already, just like the URL I listed. (and if they're not completely even all the way around, the plant doesn't mind if you snip some off to even it up... that's what they do at the nursery) The torenia I would guess that a 8"-10" basket is probably about the same -- 4-5 plants. (I bought these as babies, and they're not yet to trailing size.) The nature of these things is that they get bushy and they drape... I'd compare them to the nature of Wave Petunias or Supertunias. The babies that I bought have already bushed out quite a bit, and I only transplanted them into my containers a week ago. I'd guess they'll start to tip over in another week if they keep up at this rate! If you're interested in the number of torenia babies to make a bushy basket, I'll sneak a peek the next time I'm in the nursery, or I'll ask their floor manager if I happen to bump into her at our kids' preschool (she's my plant guru lady!). And if anyone was wondering if they REALLY thrive in shade, I can give a wholehearted YES answer to that! Mine are thriving and I see new buds forming already, and they barely see the light of day under the shade of mature oak trees, my garage wall, and the side of my house. If only they were perennial, I think I'd be in heaven!!! ;o)