Passiflora

Photo Credit: Scott R. Vrana, use by permission only.

As the readers of this blog know, I develop "passionate" (ha!) interests in a particular species or variety of plant on a regular basis.  One year, banana plants, the next year voodoo lilies, then cotton.  For a long time, I had a strong interest in passion flowers and I still enjoy them to this day.  I started planting native passifloras in the garden and non-natives in pots about 5 years ago.  They are strikingly beautiful plants, and I have written about them before.  But native passifloras are quite strong growers, at least in my climate and yard. In the heat of the summer, they grown quickly, and need to be thinned or removed before they smother other plants.  However, they are not too difficult to manage.  Keep them sheared back and pull volunteers that are unwelcome.  If they fruit, remove the fruits before they fall to the ground and set their seeds.  Easy-to-grow, and beautiful to the eye, they do need some maintenance.

Oh, for information about the name "passion" flower, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora   This plant is named for the passion of Christ...not for other...er...connotations.

Happy gardening! 

"Extra" Lagniappe (or is that redundant?)

I took a cutting of this purple passiflora from a large vine growing near RR tracks near my house. It had a bud on it, which I did not expect to open, but bloom it did, exuding a lovely, sweet fragrance.  I will plant it near a green-tinged one I have. Passifloras are easy to root, just take a cutting, put it in water in a sunny window.  They can be a bit pushy in the garden, but are not too hard to control.
Happy gardening!

Kid in a Candy Shop: Tuesday Lagniappe

There are three times I get that feeling of being a "kid in a candy shop" and I think they are co-equal in creating this feeling:
1. When I am in an actual candy shop, especially one that has really excellent chocolates;
2. When I am in a top-notch art supply store surrounded by all that paper, canvas and colors and
3. When I am in a plant nursery.
Well OK, there are four:
4. When a plant I have waited for does what I have been waiting for it to do.
Well, there are probably more than that, as I am lucky to have this feeling often!
I planted a passionflower (Passiflora icarnata) a year ago. I built a beautiful trellis for it, out of bamboo and dried vines, in June. I watched it grow and twine...and produce sterile flower buds, one after another, after a dozen....and today, September 19, 2011, a half dozen, beautiful, large, awe-inspiring flowers erupted from it.
Passionflowers are...er...one of my passions. The flower was said to represent the Passion of the Christ, not earthly passions (though it inspires those too). Look at the photo and see if you can identify the Christ on the cross, the crown of thorns and the whips used on Christ. See the Wikipedia entry for more details at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora on this fascinating flower and its culture and history.
For me the passionflower is lovely, exotic and pleasurable....though take heed, once you have it, it will spread....
Happy, passionate gardening!

Garden Quickie: Passiflora in Bloom

Above is a photo of a red passionflower that is in bloom on my back porch. I bought it on a whim at a high school plant sale in the spring! It has produced a fruit too...
(Next week's regular blog entry might be late- I'll hopefully be paying a visit to Bartram's Gardens, near Philly, the oldest botanical garden in the US).
Happy gardening!