Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
imabirdnut

Passiflora Lady Margaret

imabirdnut
13 years ago

I have been looking for P. incense locally & so far haven't found any. There are red passi's & P.caerulea plants available but I'm looking for another host for GFs for my yard. I went to Lowe's & they had a Passiflora I hadn't seen before...Lady Margaret. Is it OK for Gulf Frits? As far as I've been able to see online Passiflora Lady Margaret is a hybrid of P. vitifolia and P. caerulea. I have Maypop & the GFs all but ignore it! Any experience or comments is appreciated!

Thanks, Lila

Comments (6)

  • MissSherry
    13 years ago

    That's really surprising that the GFs ignore maypops in your area, Lila - here, that's their first choice.
    According to my passionflower books, Lady Margaret is a hybrid of P. coccinia with P. incarnata/maypops being the pollinating parent. The flowers are smallish and a very beautiful shade of burgundy red. The gulf frits laid only a few eggs on mine, the caterpillars grew, though not as quickly as they do on P. incarnata, but the plants never came back the next spring - they must have inherited their cold sensitivity from P. coccinea.
    Sometimes Home Depot will carry a variety of passis, including Incense - here, the gulf frits rarely lay eggs on Incense, but on the rare occasions when they do, the cats seem to do alright on it.
    Again, I'm hugely surprised that P. incarnata is shunned by the gulf frits in your area!
    Sherry

  • MissSherry
    13 years ago

    I forgot that I had a picture of a Lady Margaret flower -
    {{gwi:461621}}
    Sherry

  • murray_2008
    13 years ago

    In my yard the GFs ignore the maypop also but go always for the P. caerulea. It's amazing and they also like P. constance elliot. In our zone 8/9 the caerulea grows all winter and never goes dormant. But the maypop dies back to the ground in fall. Murray

  • imabirdnut
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    Thanks for the input!
    I have 2 plants of P.caerulea(pictured below) that usually get huge & the GFs will eat it to sticks! I'm not sure why the GFs all but ignore Maypop here??? I dug up the one I had this last fall & transplanted it to a more sunny location. It got huge like the 2 P.caerulas but wasn't eaten at all! My P.caeruleas usually stay mostly green & are large to start spring with but this past winter we had the coldest temps here in over 20 years with a low of 6 & 9 Degrees F! All the foliage was brown. I cut it off to the ground & moved the freeze burned foliage to a wild area on my property...just in case there were pupa in it. So far I haven't seen any GFs this year. They are really slow in re-sprouting!!!
    {{gwi:461622}}
    {{gwi:461624}}

  • MissSherry
    13 years ago

    The P. caeruleas in the first picture look fantastic! I've grown P. caeruleas, and they grow good for me the first year or two, then they decline for a year or two and then don't come back at all.
    Maybe gulf frits just like what they ate when they were caterpillars - P. incarnata grows roadside here all over the place. Whatever works for you, that's the one to grow!
    Sherry

  • imabirdnut
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    For the first time in 7 years that I've had the P caeruleas, they froze to the ground. I'm just seeing small vines coming up but it grows so fast, hopefully I will have big plants again for my GFs this summer!
    I would love to have another Zone 7 hardy passi with colorful flowers for them!
    Thanks for your input, Sherry!