Looks like a passion flower. Word of warning if you plan on planting one; they are highly invasive, at least here in Socal.

boozer52 - Thank you! I looked up passion flower after reading your post and I think you're right.

According to a lecture I attended where Patrick Worley (Passiflora hybridizer/expert), only the Passiflora caerulea and it's hybrids are invasive reseeders and the other species are not invasive.

But they can be very vigorous growers. At our old house I grew one to dress up an ugly fence on the north side of our property. My neighbor had a hot tub next to the fence and before I noticed my passion flower had completely covered her hot tub. I apologized and offered to remove it all out of her space. Oh no, she said "I like it". Al

Will they only grow in northern california or can they handle the hot southern california climate as well?

There are definitely Passiflora hybrids that do well in heat, but many of the more popular and exotic ones that we grow here in the milder parts of the San Francisco Bay Area are high elevation subtropicals, and do not like heat, nor freezing winter. I think you are pretty safe to assume that any Passion vines you would find in your local nursery or neighborhood would do well for you, but it may be safer to research the names/species of the ones for sale locally first to see if they will do well. I can personally recommend Passiflora alatocaerulea/jamesonii/mollisima/vitifolia/'Lavender Lady' as ones that do well almost anywhere in California, as long as it doesn't get too cold in winter. Passifloras in general are much more prone to caterpillars in southern California, so you will have to live with some depredation, but they typically outgrow the damage in the warmer months.

I've actually seen them growing as ground cover along highway exits of route 10 in L.A. I think they are mostly tropical/sub tropical so heat won't bother them.

A lot of the most gorgeous, long tubed Passifloras and the larger more exotic hybrids are high elevation species/hybrids that do not tolerate heat, particularly a lot of the Patrick Worley hybrids, which were specifically hybridized with coastal northern California's climate in mind. Even the common edible passion fruit, Passiflora edulis, does best along the coast in southern California, and is not recommended for the Inland Empire.

Tropical/Subtropical cloud forest plants are not necessarily adapted to high heat, and fail to perform in hot summer or hot summer/high humidity climates such as Miami or inland southern California. They need cooler nights to survive, and high summer heat at night can cook them. One example that comes to mind is the beautiful Passiflora membranacea, which can even cook here in Berkeley when we get a heat wave up into the 90'sF.

I live here in southern CA and I've never seen anything like that.

Here is a link that might be useful: Wind Chimes

cyoung:

Certainly you must know that you're not allowed to post commercial material on the California Gardening Forum (nor any GardenWeb Forum). Even when you sneak it in under the pretense of a viable post.

It means the GardenWeb Big Guys will ban you forever.

And Laurie: love your photo.

Joe

I live in Davis, and we get very hot, so the flower pictured obviously does well in hot weather. Our weather is comparable to that of Sacramento--in other words, we get 100 degree plus weather in the summer and some nights don't cool down much below 70. We do sometimes have the advantage of a bit more of the Delta breeze at night than Sacramento--so we might be a few degrees cooler at night (but only a few degrees). Our weather isn't as temperate as that of the Bay Area (like Berkeley, where I've also lived).

It grows quickly in my area. I'm 30 miles inland from SF. It gets really hot here as well.

My mother grew it in SD and it flourished. It does attract the Gulf Fritillary butterfly. They use the plant to lay eggs on. If you're a butterfly lover it's worth planting extra.

I love mine- I planted it for the butterflies. I think it's okay to plant if you live in a concrete jungle, but if you don't, watch out! It spreads by root suckers, climbing, and seeds deposited by birds that eat the fruit. I pick all of the fruit off of mine to prevent the mockingbirds from spreading it, and it is a time-consuming undertaking. Every two years I cut it back to a stump to keep it on its arbor and away from other plants. The only vine that is worse is the purple morning glory (which I have yet to eradicate in my side yard).
Renee