Texas Gardening: passion vine, 0 by debnes_dfw_tx

debnes_dfw_tx wrote:
I hear ya Lhasa! You're in the right place for advice and forethought.

The one in Christi's article is hard to beat. The article was right on about the Blue Crown being responsible for nurturing the rising populations of Gulf Fritillaries, even through the winter.

I have several of these on my back fence, and they have not died back over the course of many years. The trunks are over an inch in diameter, and they've been blooming for about 3 weeks. I have not found any of the other varieties to be so tolerant of cold or even drought. This one is the best I have found.

While inspecting my host plants the other day, I found this little guy "making J". He had crawled away from the vine to pupate on a blade of Plantain. It had survived the past month of occasional freezes as a caterpillar. The winter slows the Frits down some, but not altogether. All winter I have noticed them flying around on the warmer days. Surely because of this Blue Crown PV.

No, not a native, but surely a performer destined for a welcoming place.

Now rooting about 8 of them, and will start some more soon. I'm using a (new to me) method. Looks like a winner so far.

http://www.plantswap.net/forum/f25/propagating-cuttings-usin...