My lantana bonsai

Okay, so it's not really mine, yet. Really. It is, but it isn't.  I saw this beautiful, old, clipped lantana in a garden on the KenTon Garden Tour this past summer. I told the owner that I admired it because I grow lantana, as annuals in baskets, every year. And then he asked me if I wanted it!

He grows many lantana and said he overwinters these in a cold space -- first he severely prunes them -- and then root prunes them before putting them away for the winter. He says that too many leaves requires to much energy, and if there's less leaves, it makes sense there should be less roots to keep it going.

Then he offered to give it to me after the season was over. Of course I said yes, I'm not stupid. Last week I went to pick it up along with another one he'd trimmed up for the winter -- and three other non-bonsai lantana in pots! Now the pressure is on me to keep them going through the winter. I am notoriously bad at watering pants kept in the basement. Wish me luck.

Above is full bloom, to the right is what they looked like when he gave them to me.

People on garden tours are the best kind of people. I left him a bottle of Fleur Pinot Noir in return, but that hardly seems fair.

What are you overwintering?