Check out this book too Monterey... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0881926485/qid=1094277487/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-2736279-3970203?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
The only thing I don't like is how it's arranged, but the info and pictures are great:-)
Passiflora alata in bud
Looks like a winner! You have mail. That Vanderplank book is good .
Here's yet another photo of it...
Beautiful, Indigoez! Mine is flowering like crazy too!
Hehehe...what a great thread!
I've spent the last three days observing the buds on one of my Alata vines...Took pics of the closed buds; today they are beginning to open, showing color! I imagine tomorrow or next day they'll be saluting! Yay!!!!
By the way, Shelly...yours is from a rooted cutting I took last year, not from this years seed. There is a chance you'll see buds/flowers this year if your weather is cooperative!
Don'tcha just luv these passies!!!? :>)
Horseshoe, you do know that these beautiful flowers only last for one day; right? So, if it is opening today, they'll be gone tomorrow! That's the only down side of passifloras, I think. I hope you get lots of blooms:-)
So far, the buds started "cracking open" yesterday a slight bit...today they are open a bit more. Looks like by tomorrow they will be open fully(?)
(I walk by them several times a day...trust me...I got my eyes on 'em!) :>)
I'm also excited my Passiflora alata is in bud for the first time.
Especially since I've been battling spider mites on it all summer and it has lost a lot of leaves.
I started it from commercial seed in January of 2003.
Maybe tomorrow or the day after?
Eje, it looks like you've got a few days yet. When it is ready to open the day before, you can usually see bright color at the tip. Look at the bud below the flowers in this picture. Do you see the closed one with color in it? That is what it looks like the day before one opens.
Clare,
Is yours a named variety like 'Ruby Glow'?
I'm curious because each of your leaves seem to only have 2 of those nobby things (nectaries?) on the leaf petiole. Mine almost always have 4. The flower buds also look a little different.
In any case, the seed was supposed to be plain Passiflora alata. Though, it was from Thompson-Morgan, who don't always have the best record with correctly naming their seed. It will be interesting to see what the flowers look like.
Oh, I see from your post above, that yours is of the 'Ruby Glow' variety.
Erik
This message was edited Sep 9, 2004 4:55 PM
Hi Erik, yes, you are right that I have just two nobby things at the base of each leaf, and I do have the hybrid "Ruby Glow." If yours was grown from seed then it is a hybrid, probably with the seed parent of Passiflora Alata. I wonder which one they used to pollinate it with? It should be very exciting to see what flower you end up with. I hope it is a fragrant one! I think you are right that your bud looks a little bit different and not quite as large, but it could get larger in time.
Clare,
All I know is it was from this listing and I only got 6 seeds!
http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/us/en/product/7201/1
I was just happy when 3 of them germinated!
I am now ecstatic to have flowers!
Erik
Hi Erik, I looked closely at some of my immature buds, and I think yours look pretty similar to mine. I bet your flowers will retain many of the P. alata characteristics. That's great that you were able to germinate three of them! They can be tough to germinate and keep going. I can't wait to see your flowers too!
Woo Hoo!
Houston, we have liftoff!
PS. Smells great, too.
Purty!!! I luv 'em!
Mine is blooming left and right now! We've had 4 flowers open and have a few more "bud peeking" right now. I counted all the buds I can see that are still unopened and it looks like there are 14 more!
I started mine from commercial seed several yrs ago and it was marked as Alata...I'll post some pics when I get a chance and hope ya'll can definitely help me be sure.
eje, that is a real beaut!!! (Do they smell only at nite, like Brugs, or do they smell in the daytime also...I haven't noticed any perfume from mine but it might be cus the Brugs are overpowering it!)
Horseshoe,
Mine smells during the day. Of course it is about 10 feet up, so I have to go get a ladder to smell it.
It's kind of a fruity-perfumy kind of smell. Certainly not as overpowering as Brugmansia. I have to get pretty close to smell it.
So far I can only see one other bud on that branch. No buds on any other branches yet.
Okay...thanks....I'll get a good sniff of mine when I go up to the house later!
I took pics but have to down load them. Might post tomorrow. Those sure are some pretty flowers! Luv em!
It's very pretty, Eje! Congrats!
Here's a great close-up! Love the purplish rings on the hangy-downy thingies!
It looks like you guys might have a different variety than mine. Is your P. alata "Ruby Glow," or just P. Alata? My threads seem to be a little darker purple and longer. My flowers definitely waft at certain times of the day. This morning, at about 10:30, I could smell the flowers across the yard.
Horseshoe, yours might even be Passiflora x decaisneana, which is P. alata x P. quadrangularis.
I purchased the seeds 3 yrs ago and it was listed as P. Alata.
Here's a pic online showing alata with the round circles on the threads.
http://passionflora-images.com/search.php?query=alata&option=flower&searchtype=con&perpage=20
(Have to click the P. Alata above the authors name to view the pic.)
By the way, did you once say these were self-pollinating/fertile, or do they need to be crossed with another variety?
Hey all, I had stopped watching this thread and missed a lot:-(
I agree with Clare that eje and Horseshoe have a different variety... the flowers on mine and Clare's are the same, dark purple filaments, and they don't stick out (as in open up flatter) as much. Not that it really matters though, they're both very nice:-) Mine smells during the day btw, and it can get quite strong, even from one flower. I took one to work earlier to show someone and it smelled up the entire area hehe:-)
As for the "knobby" things, I have only two as well. I remember reading that they look the way they do (they resemble large butterfly eggs) to deter the species of butterfly that like to lay on Passifloras by making it seem that the plant is already infested and thus not a good laying site. Seems to have worked in the case of mine, because I have have a lot of eating on most of my other ones, but they never touch the alata.
Horseshoe, Ah! I understand now. P. alata "Ruby Glow" is a named hybrid, whose characteristics can only be preserved by propagation by cuttings, which will be genetically identical to the parent plant. Yours is a P. alata hybrid because you sowed the seeds of P. alata. Some passifloras are self-pollinating, and some are not. I don't think that P. alata is self-pollinating; I think it needs the pollen of another passiflora.
Indigoez, I'm glad your vine is putting on a show for you. I was shoveling rocks in my driveway all afternoon, and the fragrance definitely wafts! That's interesting about the "knobby things." They do resemble butterfly eggs! I don't think they are discouraging the butterflies on mine much though! I had quite a few laying eggs today! LOL! I don't mind though.
Gang, here's my 'Ruby Glow'. I cut down a huge old Coral tree this year and the vine had reached the top. When I cut back 'Ruby Glow', it is much better behaved now.
-Ron-
Clare, here's an image of the Delonix regia growing in La Habra CA. This pick was taken in July of this year. As you can see, it's doing fine.
-Ron-
I wish mine could ever look like that... if only I was a zone farther south!
Here's a pic of two new alata blooms. I had five open today:-)
Wow, Ron. Awesome! Thanks for posting those pics! I wonder how cold it gets in La Habra, CA? I may have to do some research about that. By the way, I didn't repot my Delonix. I was going to, but I had to wait for the soil to dry out again, but when it took a while to dry out, I realized that it wasn't super rootbound so I didn't repot it. I think it will be okay until May when I plan to put mine in the ground. I did put the container it is in inside another container, and it is against the aluminum siding of the house underneath an eave so I think it will be okay outside this winter. If La Habra is in Zone 10 like I am, mine should be fine outside, I hope!
Indigoez, your blooms are lovely! Edited to ask: what type of tree is that in the picture with your P. Alata "Ruby Glow"?
This message was edited Sep 14, 2004 8:36 PM
Clare, the tree would be my sad Delonix... sad compared the the one in Ron's picture at least. We talked about that at the start or middle of the thread somewhere I think. It's gotten so long who remembers lol.
I thought so! I remember now! Thanks!
Just trying to help here, but most of these pictures are of the Alata 'Ruby Glow', which I believe is a.k.a. P. Phoenicia. There seems to be a couple of different flowers that I have seen though, perhaps someones recreation of the same cross or maybe it has just changed with the tons of propogating it's gone though. I saw a picture from North Carolina, forgot who it was but what a nice flower. Not sure what it is, but it doesn't look like my Decaisneana, maybe another type of Alata. Also saw a nice Alata pic from the person in San Fransisco.
Mark