Tropicals & Tender Perennials: My lady lavender passion vine is being devoured, 2 by lourspolaire

lourspolaire wrote:
Hi, everyone.

Yes, Qwilter. That is the approach I am currently using. Thanks to the generosity of one of our friends on DG, I have obtained a variety of passionflower cultivars. They will all share the trellis. They are growing with wild abandon. If some of you have some passiflora coccinea, I would gladly exchange cuttings of this one with you. It is a vigorous grower that resists the onslaught of the caterpillars. Some of those cultivars will be unappetizing to the caterpillars, so the trellis will never be bare, or become an eyesore. My HOA frowns upon eyesores.

Here are some pictures of my passionflowers this morning, along with a picture of a vilain happily munching on a bud as if it were candy. That's one flower we'll never see. I think I'll catch those buggers, feed them cuttings until they turn into cocoons and then mount the resulting butterflies. Hmmm, a nice shadowbox with gulf fritillaries: not too hard on the eyes. OK, I have a project: catch some caterpillars, house them and wait until butterflies show up. After the hunt, I gotta mix me some BT and spray. My vengence will be terrible. Bare trellis: nevermore!

Take care, all.
Sylvain.