This is long link but best I could do. In the Dallas News today.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/home/gardening/stories/DN-nhg_passionvine_0122gd.ART0.State.Edition1.4ed15e3.html
passion vine
Lou, thanks for posting that link. A great article. Now I have to find a place for another vine. I need a bigger yard!
Crow
P vines are fun to grow. I've grow the native one before and it was nice, but now I grow one that I got from Florida. The bloom has a strong fragrance that is to die for and is much larger than the native bloom. The color is a deep purple. This var. is in my opinion much prettier than the native. Although it dies back in Winter new growth pops up all over the place in Spring. I grow it in poor alkaline soil, so it may become invasive in rich soil.
Jerry
The gulf fritts love passion vines . We literally have hundreds of them in my yard.
I forgot to post the picture.
Any idea how much shade they can take?
David, part shade is O.K.
Josephine.
Mine get afternoon sun only.
Txrockgdn....is that the 'Incense' PV ? This is mine.
That sounds right.
Definitely invasive! I'm continually having to chop up sprouts clear across the yard from the original planting and cut/pull down long strings of vines from trees and the a/c unit. But the blossoms are beautiful and even in this dreadful drought the vines on the fence are still green. The soil here is black clay but must be rich because it grows such magnificient weeds!
All p-vines are somewhat invasive eventually if not contained. People usually love them in spite of it because they are so gorgeous!. I have many kinds...but this is my Incense...amazing flowers!
I like the purple ones best (I'm growing Incense) but there are red ones also! Logees offers a quite varied collection.
I found a caterpillar on my Incense vine the other day. Not much foliage left on it after all the freezes I've had, so I moved it to the P. caerulea vine. And found another caterpillar on that vine. They are right. That one can have freeze damage, but it's pretty much evergreen here. But I don't normally see any caterpillars in January.
I saw two Fritilaries frittering about just yesterday, they were small but very pretty, and such a nice surprise. My Passiflora incarnata is dormant now, but I have an evergreen passi that someone gave me, I don't know the name of it, and I have never seen it bloom, but it is green now, so that may have been their food source.
Josephine.
I am still having an occassional small caterpillar on the PV on my back fence. It must be a 'blue crown' because it is still green, I thought it was 'Maypop'. The 'Incense' froze and I cut it back early in the winter.
Not all are invasive. I got sick and tired of 'Incense', etc. and got rid of them all, but wanted some for the butterflies. I ordered and tested several cultivars out of a California nursery. Several also turned out invasive after fooling me for a year or so (Blue Boutique, Jeannette, Sanguinolenta), but one has not been invasive at all, blooms nearly year round (in 9b) and is still green today. I believe it is Passiflora allardii, but I can't find my original order sheet. It came from Kartuz greenhouse; I checked the picture on the web which looks to be accurate.
I have two of these passionflowers; one was a volunteer, but given I've had it for about 8 years that's not what I call invasive! People have asked for starts, but there haven't been any others.
I recommend trying some "exotic" cultivars in your own garden to see if they seed everywhere. Perhaps a list could be eventually be made of ones that don't take over the landscape?
LeslieT
I only use passilforas that survive being outside in winters with freezes down to mid to high teens without any protection. And they have to be proven safe for the native butterfly caterpillars to use...don't want to kill them. So most of the exotics are not going to be what I want. I can put up with some invasiveness. My Maypop foliage has been gone for a while now.
I am still trying to find something that will grow out here in west Texas.. it is so darn dry here! The only thing that is invasive here is the trumpet vine and I have finally found a way to control that thing so I don't have a problem with invasives. If anyone has a passi that they think might survive out here, I would love a start of your most tenacious one.. I am tired of paying $20 each for things that just die here.
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-using-forsythe-pots-1264/
wow, that is a reall cool way to root cuttings.. never seen anything like it before.. I really like it.. wonder if it will work with rose cuttings. I am planning on trying to root some soon. I have a rose bush I really love and would give anything to be able to propigate. It is 20 years old now and would hate to lose it and not have another somewhere.
I would love to get one of your rooted pasi cuttings some day if you find you have extras.
Will see when these take, dmail me a reminder so I can find you. I have actually sent cuttings in a bubble envelope, and they were able to root by several of the recipients. The above method would be a good way to do them.
So many benefits to being a member here at DG... Always learning new ways to work with plants, and new things about them.
I LOVE DG and all its members. I have learned so much and met so many wonderful people. I was not nearly so into my yard and gardening until I found DG. It has opened a new world for me. Now I am torn between my dogs, my embroidery machine and my yard!