The little orange and yellow flowers are called Lantana.

Ooops just went straight to the picture and didn't see that you already mentioned this. Sorry :)

That's adorable. Although, does it attract bees?

I was wondering about bees and the mail carrier too. Very pretty, but wouldn't work for mine....mine's a slot in the garage wall, mail falls into a built-in wooden box inside. Or its supposed to - depends on which carrier. I have a box outside under the slot for packages the wrong dimension and sometimes I find all mail in that.

My carrier does not like these things with flowers and other attachments besides the possibility of being stung or bit if anything happened to the decorations they would be the first one to be blamed. That trailing stuff in wind could easily be blown into the box and when the carrier attempted to close the door the plant could be damaged. Since most carriers are timed taking the extra time to be careful not to damage this stuff can cause a black mark against the carrier. One of the first things my stepson was assigned after he was promoted was timing carriers.

So cute!

My mail carriers like the mailbox cover. They wait every year to see what it's going to look like. Bees? I don't think I've ever seen any. When the flowers are gone in the Fall, I decorate it for Autumn and for Halloween. Then it gets put away for the winter.

I would never blame them for any damage to the plants or decorations! That's silly. When and if I get a letter demanding that I remove it after all these years, I will - sadly -but I will.

The trailing vine looks a bit like lamium.

schoolhouse while I agree it is silly carriers get blamed for many things some that they are guilty of others things that just happened or caused by others. Years ago my carrier and I used to work night shift at the same bank. When I am expecting something important I will be outside waiting. Does not happen often that he has time for anything other than a Hi and Good Bye but some of the things he and my stepson have told me about concerning carriers that were accused of were petty and mean. Latest trend for some reason is leaving the door of your box open after taking your mail. The carriers are blamed because the mail is wet even though the inside of the box had water. If they kept the mail so it would not get wet they were blamed for that.

I don't know if any of those shenanigans go on around here in my rural area, but it would be nice if they delivered the correct mail to the correct addresses so we wouldn't have to walk up and down the road taking each other's mail to the proper house. And we're not really suppose to open another person's mailbox, so we usually have to take it to the door. OR, mostly I put it back in my box with a big note, "Not My Mail".

I see lots of mailbox doors open, I figure the door is faulty, or the semi trucks on the main highway blow them right open!

When we had lantana in our yard in Venice, it bloomed all winter. It's good for attracting butterflies. I try to plant flowers for hummingbirds, and I have a salvia that blooms all winter, which is good for them, but I also keep a feeder up. I also have bromeliads and orchids that bloom throughout the year, but some of them do not bloom every year, but the epidendrums bloom all the time - just not quite as much in the winter as in the spring and summer.

The idea behind the open doors is so that thieves can easily see that there is nothing in the box. This has been talked about in several of the homeowners meetings. While it might do that it also on streets like mine that two cars going in opposite directions need to slow down when meeting means scraped cars or doors missing. I had to install a new box last year after something hit mine. I actually read the instructions and here the front of the box is supposed to be right above the edge of the street. Add the length of the door on some boxes there will be cars taking them off.

Very pretty!!!!

Varigated vinca...and yellow jasmine?

I love lantana. I bring about five potted plants inside every winter since it's not a perennial here. I cut it back to just two-inch twigs and in the height of summer one of them is over six feet tall and they bloom till frost.

Our biggest complaint with the mail carrier is when they stuff a box in the mailbox that just barely fits and then we have to pry it out. You all can probably figure out which size box I’m talking about. And our mailbox has a catch for the door at the top that prevents the box from sliding out easily without ripping the box open.

And yes, schoolhouse, we have the same problem and we are rural too. Sometimes the problem is worse than others. I blame the sorters at the post office not the carriers. One particular day we had 5 different people’s mail in addition to our own. Some people were close by and we knew them and some weren’t. One even looked like a credit card replacement for one neighbor so I did take it to her.

The only person to blame when you get someone elses mail is the carrier. They are responsible for making sure that the mail they put in your box is yours no matter how it was sorted(it mostly comes pre sorted these days) Still you do not get the same carrier every day since they do have days off. If it is mostly on certain days it is likely the sub who has to cover multiple routes and that means knowing thousands of mail boxes. Your carrier services hundreds of boxes. That is hundreds of households with even more individual people. The numbers have steadily increased over the years. It is a tough job.

Patricia, the carriers have something that looks like a file in their vehicle. They just pull out the mail with your house number on it and put it in your box. Yes, if they are conscientious and IF they have the time they would flip through it and ensure it is all for you. If you have a package, there is a ‘flag’ to alert them.

My Dad was a Postmaster years ago. I realize things have changed but it is the mail sorter’s job to ensure it gets sorted correctly before it goes to the carrier.

That's so pretty! I love it!

That is beautiful, we could never have it here though. Teenagers take great delight in destroying mailboxes on a regular basis. I would never put much money into something that would be gone right away.