Two passion flowers on the vine this morning…in our zone 7 area, passion flowers must be treated as an annual. I bought this vine from Home Depot and bring it indoors right before the first frost, put it just inside my office patio doors (where it gets filtered light and I keep it watered) and take it out again in spring. I’ve been able to keep it going strong for four consecutive years now—not bad for my $20 investment, huh?
I noticed that passion flower is spelled as one word and as two words all over the web—by experts and novice gardeners alike. In past postings, I’ve spelled it as one word. Which do you prefer? Are they both correct?
There are more than 500 known species and several hundred hybrids of passiflora. Most are vine-flowering, although some are shrubs, and a few are herbaceous. Just nine species are found in the U.S. and Southern Asia has the most native species–17. The most common species in the southeastern U.S. is the Maypop, Passiflora incarnata. Its edible fruit is sweet, yellow, the size of a chicken’s egg, and few pests bother it. It is the larval food of a number of butterfly species and important to local wildlife. Carpenter bees are important pollinators of maypops.
For more information on passion flowers:
Passiflora Online is a comprehensive website with growing tips, FAQs, plant ID, hybrid and species images, pollinators, and much more.
Plants in Motion has videos of a passion flower in bloom and also short clips of bees visiting the flowers.
Tradewinds Fruit has a great database of passion flower blossoms. Click on the “related species” section on the left of the site to see a wide variety of passion flower plants.
See more of my passion flower photos in the links below:
http://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/its-about-time/
http://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/backyard-blooms/
http://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2008/06/21/meanwhile-in-the-garden/
http://cindydyer.wordpress.com/2008/07/28/lady-margaret/
© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.
Incredible photos! What an awesome plant. I have always been intimidated by them and never bought one. After seeing yours and knowing you were succesful at bringing them inside, maybe I will try one next year. Thanks!
Hi Cindy
I just want to say first of all what wonderful photography! I came by your site when searching Google for an image of the Butterfly Daffodil to use for the April photo of a fundraising calendar I’m creating. I did not find what I was looking for but you have an amazing cropped photo of a daffodil I would like to use if I cannot find the Butterfly Daffodil elsewhere.
Please could you let me know if it would be possible to use the image. Of course, a photo credit will given to you on the page. If you have any photos of butterflies in any of the major cancer awareness colours (or perhaps the flowers they are sitting on) and you wouldn’t mind giving me permission to use them in the calendar I would be more than grateful.
I’m trying to put the calendar together ready for printing on September 16th so would need the photos by the Monday before.
You can visit my website for more information about my fundraising efforts, although there is no mention of the calendar on there yet… as I wanted to wait till it was completed.
Regards
Karen Coleman
(PS… no need to publish this as a comment… I could not find your email address on your blog… so this was the only way I could find to contact you.)