Passiflores chat continued from the curcumas thread

Hi, all.

As requested, I got a photo of my Passion Vine this morning. It is very fragrant. The smell is O. K. in the ambient air, but close-up it is not entirely pleasant (reminded me somewhat of bug spray when I got a good whiff of it up close). The plant has 5 leaves (as seen in the photo attached).

It may be 'incense.' I thought my flower petals were a darker purple than the photo provided for 'incense,' but I think it may be that the petals just look lighter in the photo. I noticed the flash on my camera took out a lot of the color (as seen in the second photo).

Are there other fragrant Passiflores? or can I assume this one is 'incense?'

Jeremy

Here's another photo of my Passion Vine flower, showing how the color lightens when the flash is closer.

Jeremy

The leaves look a bit narrow for p. incense.

I've got a few passiflora's and they are growing great - except they have never bloomed - can you let me know the secret of getting them to bloom. I have in large container pots with trellis' and in morning sun and filtered afternoon sun. I had tags at one time, but I have a very mischevious cat that luvs to pull the tags from my plants at times and then I forget which is what until it blooms.

Mine have a mind of their own. P. incense has always been a prolific bloomer but I have several others I have yet to see a bloom on.

It may be, juja, that growing them in pots inhibits their root growth too much and they won't feel like they can expend the energy needed to make flowers. Mine are in the ground along a fence that gets some direct sun, but mostly indirect light. I didn't notice any blooms on them last year, but they are blooming daily this year -- and have spread like wildfire from their root runners -- coming up as far as about 20 - 30 ft from the original plants! I have plenty of the variety pictured if anyone wants some. Like most vines, they go through some severe transplant shock, but recover within about 2 weeks.

I noticed a Gulf Fritillary dabbing away at my Passiflores vines yesterday. I assume it was egg-laying behavior. She was also alighting briefly on the FENCE near the Passion Flower vines and depositing eggs there. I guess anyplace close to the vine is a good enough location for the caterpillars to hatch and make it to the vine to dine. There is fortunately plenty for the caterpillars to eat and still leave me with blooms.

I saved old 4" opening rusty "hog wire" fence that was around on my property and stapled it loosely all along this wooden fence so that various vines could grow up it The rusty wire virtually disappears against the fence, especially when the vines grow to cover it. I want to do the same thing with most of the rest of the wooden fences around the perimeter of my yard. I seem to have a more than ample supply of old "chicken coop wire" and other wire fencing left from previous owners/gardeners at my property to cover the fences.

Jeremy


This message was edited Jul 6, 2005 11:33 AM

I was watching a GF laying eggs on one of my incense also.
Jan...

I planted two. One on each side of a set of steps. The one on the inside is fine -- the other one is down to bare bones. WOW. I have been away a couple of months and both had baby GF cat. I do have a couple of GF's fluttering around. How come the cats can be so selective?

this is such a sad story, I almost didn't post it... But...
An aquantaince of mine and DH's, a former co-worker of his and a neighbor of friends of ours, recently had us over to look at his landscaping, plantings, etc. Has a passiflora. Told us, with great horror, of the "ugly bugs" he had on them before he sprayed them into an early grave. Hang on, it gets worse... they were unmistakably GF cats from his description. When I told him what he'd killed, he *shrugged* (!!!) said Who cares? They're dead now! And if I see any more, they're dead too!

This is someone who brags about his "Zen" garden, btw. Anyone else seeing the, for lack of a better word, irony here?

Jeremy,

If you've got some to spare, I'd love a few cuttings. I can give you some butterfly ginger when it's established.

Maggie