Passion vine from the bad place!

I always dreamed of growing a fancy pants passion vine outside without fear of it getting killed in the cold. My first choice was the common red you buy at Lowes or Home Depot. Forget the pretty little arbor it was trained on. I'll never see it again. This monster is eating the entire north side of my fence. 15 foot arms (and growing) are wiggling everywhere and grabbing onto everything in sight! Does anyone know of other passion flower varieties that are just as beautiful but not so aggressive?

Vee,

Where are the flowers? I have some SriLankan weevils that adore those vines. They will thin them out for you real fast.

Ahhh, not a solution, you don't want them weevils up there if they are not there already.

I would suggest getting one of the more unusual passies. I have one I bought off ebay thats called Blue Boutique. It is definately not growing fast. The first year I had it in a pot, this past year it's been in the ground and only put off 2 vines that may be 6 foot each. I would also suggest that when you tear down all that wildness and replace it with another vine, keep the vine in a pot. I believe it will help contain the growth. Since we do live in the tropics and everything tropical grows so well here, you may want to periodically thin/prune out some of the vines.

At my other house I planted 2 purples and 1 red to cover the back chain link fence to hide the nasty backyard of the rear neighbors. It did just that in about 2 years. It also started to grab anything in its path and grew up it, running into the main part of the lawn etc. These were also the common ones bought at Home Dept. Good thing I'm not living there anymore having to deal with it when it takes down the fence, and it will. It already collapsed 2 bird houses mounted on metal posts.

Shall I stop by in September on my way north and help you tear down that thing?

Molly
:^)))

Molly ... too funny! Believe me I will have no problem to tear it down. The more I prune the more it loves it. It is almost 1 year old. It flowered heavily during the cooler months. I'm gonna try the pot thing with this one. I can't let it continue the way it is going that's for sure.
Thank you for the advice Molly. :)

My mom and my brother both received this passion vine as gifts from me. In another year they will be chasing me down with an axe. ... ha!

ROTFLOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Do butterflies like your vine? If so, i'd like a cutting before you send it back to the bad place it came from.

Thanks,

Maggie

Maggie I didn't notice butterflies around this plant. It flowered the heaviest Feb-June. I didn't have many butterflies around then. Now I have tons of butterflies but most of the few flowers it has now are inside the plant where there is shade. I will gladly still send you a chunk of this plant if you still want it. It will probably be at the most another month before I can get to it.
vicki

Vicki, watch out for your fence. When we moved here itwas growing along the privacy fence across the back of the property. My neighbor cut it, or actually rolled it back into a huge role like a hay role. The main plant was back in a corner behind a shop overhang. About a month later I went out and it had come into the overhang and grown around my son's motorcycle! I don't know what kind of genes this thing has. I have to water, feed and baby my other Passies!
Pati

This thing would sure eat your pets and small children if given half a chance huh? I'll just bet if you let this sucker swallow the fence you'll never have to worry about a hurricane blowing it down again! rofl! It has devil genes I just know it! :)

I keep coming back here and am continually reminded of a movie I saw as a young girl with all my siblings "Dr (somebody's) House of Horrors. A scarey trilogy, one of which was the crawling vines.

Vines that grew so fast they totally encapsulated a house with people in it. Very scarey for young children and yet visions of the vines growing around the motorcyle takes my breath and double beats my heart.

:^)))

LOL Molly......Obviously the vine that starred in the movie was KUDZU! Even the Passiflora from H--- can't compete with that!
Pati

Poor Molly :( I hope you are asleep when the Kudzu eats you! I hope he'll leave some Molly crumbs for my favorite passion vine.

hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!
:^)))))))))))))))))

So, that's what I gave to my dil?!?! She so desperately wanted a cutting of the red passi, and a cutting of the purple, so I presented her with a gift of both plants, roots and all......

She was thrilled, and so was I!! Both of these had started to take over everything, and the purple was actually starting to act as a ground cover.

Oh dear, what can the matter be?! ROFL

Not one of the best choices as a gift to a dil. You know what they say about motherinlaws. You proved to her just how mean you can really be! ... lol!

This is hard. With every chop it is like killing an old but obnoxious friend. I have to keep in mind that it is for Molly's sake that I do this. She will always be looking over her shoulder if I don't. Molly dear, you owe me one!

The garbage man is going to hate me when he sees this pile!

Oh my word, didn't you say there was an arbor under there? I still can't see it. And you have been busy today!!!!!

Me thinks me has to make a confession just about now. Went to Butterfly World today with a few DG'ers and the last stop after all the butterflies and hummingbirds is the nursery. I picked up 3 different Buddleia's and Byron Beauty (picture below)

But but but, I have great plans for it. It's going on the chain link fence and hopefully will choke out all those ficus bushes that keep growing through to my side making more work for me. And besides, I just rent here. It won't be my problem 2 years from now. heehee....oops. Me bad.

Molly
:^)))

Edited to change confusion to confession.

This message was edited Aug 19, 2005 5:47 PM

Wow that is gorgeous! I hope it grows beautifully for you. What if it is so fabulous you don't want to leave it behind? That would be cool!

I decided I'm going to dig my red one up, cut the rootball into 3 chunks, keep one and send the other two to the ones I promised. I'm gonna put my chunk on the other side of the fence a little further east. No trellis. There is a canal on that side of the fence and lots of room to grow but it is county land. ................... or maybe pot my chunk and see if I can manage it that way.

Vee,

After smelling all the passies over at B World, I have determined the reds have no fragrance and the purples most usually have a wonderful scent.

To be most truthful, I think I will put this one in a larger pot and set it right up next to the chain link fence. When I leave, I will just have to cut the vines off from it, pick the pot up and carry it with me. I believe that might work.

What do you think?

Molly
:^)))

Perfect idea. That one is not so common as the red and being fragrant is icing on the cake! I'll just betcha you will not want to leave it behind.