Tropicals & Tender Perennials: my New Passiflora Piresii, 0 by ErickMN

ErickMN wrote:
Hello Gordon!

My sincere apologies for the delayed response. I haven't been online much lately, but with the new growing season approaching that will soon change. It was just over 40F here yesterday, our first real thaw of the spring.

Congratulations on your new P. 'Piresii'! It has quickly become one of my favorites. The flowers are truly spectacular - up to 5" across and a stunning vibrant orange. I only got about two dozen of them last summer, but my plant was only about a year old. I expect it to be more floriferous in the coming years. I recall the flowers were at their best in late morning, and noticeably declining by mid-afternoon. Otherwise, it seems to love heat and humidity and full sun. I haven't found much online about this hybrid, but some have commented that it's difficult to overwinter. I haven't found that to be the case at all. I keep mine in a bright, warm room and water it very lightly. It's doing just fine. It pretty much just sits there.

Thank you very much for your kind comments. My collection of ~30 species and hybrids is doing just fine so far this winter. I keep some on my south-facing enclosed sun porch (P. aurantia, P. ‘Purple Haze’, P. ‘White Wedding’, etc.), some in my grow room with bright artificial light (P. loefgrenii, P. mollissima aka tripartata var. mollisima, P. ‘Exoniensis’, etc.) and some in the basement with very little light (P. incarnata, P. edulis ‘Flavacarpa’, ‘Panama Red’ and ‘Purple Possum, etc.). My only loss so far has been my beloved P. subpeltata, lol. Although the flowers are somewhat small, they are a gorgeous pure white and I literally had 1,000+ of them on my plant last summer, from spring to frost. I made the mistake of thinking it would go “dormant” in my basement. It went well past that, unfortunately. I managed to save one of the hundreds of fruits I got on it last summer and am starting the seeds now. Hopefully at least one will sprout.

Although I have limited space, I am looking forward to promoting about a half dozen new Passifloras into larger pots (and hopefully first blooms) this summer, including P. biflora, P. membranacea, P. kermesina, P. amethystina ‘Minas Gras’ and P. coccinea. I also just recently received seeds of P. edmundii, P. racemosa and P. eichleriana ‘Mauro Peixoto’ from, well, Mauro Peixoto in Brazil (www.brazilplants.com). It’s always fun to add to the collection!

Congrats again on your fabulous new Passiflora, and thanks again for the kind comments. I look forward to lots of updates on your collection from you in the months to come.

Erick


This message was edited Mar 8, 2009 9:42 PM