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mary_lu_gw

Does anyone grow Passion Flower?

mary_lu_gw
12 years ago

For the past number of years I have planted mandevilla vine on our arbor swing. This year I wanted to try something different. Our local nursery had a Purple Passion Flower vine. So I thought what the heck I will try it.

Just wondering how hard it is to grow? From what I have read it shouldn't be too difficult? I know it is not hardy here, but neither were the mandevilla plants. I grew them like annuals and will probably do the same with the passion flower.

Comments (19)

  • scully931
    12 years ago

    I have tried every year to grow them from seed. Last year I got one little flower. I can never seem to find them in the nursery.

    But... my mom's neighbor has them COVERING her porch. They are gorgeous! My mom asked her about it for me and she said she just gets them at the nursery each year.

  • natal
    12 years ago

    Used to. Down here it can be a bit invasive.

  • mary_lu_gw
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    scully, our local True Value has a great garden center and gets some lovely plants in. I can usually find something a little different there every year. What zone is your mom's neighbor in? I am wondering how much it will actually grow with our summer. The plant I got is about 2 1/2 ft tall and has many tendrils growing off the sticks it is attached to. It has lots of buds on it already. I brought in the house as the next couple of nights we are supposed to get down into the mid to low 40's yet then warm up. It was in an unheated greenhouse.

    natal, I had read tonight that it can be invasive in the south. But up here, with -25 or lower temps in the winter, I don't think I have to worry about that. It says on the tag it can be grown indoors. Do you think it would be worth trying to over winter it in the house?

    I will be planting it in a whiskey barrel planter next to the arbor swing with hopes that it grows up the arbor. It will get sun from mid morning until late afternoon.

    This is the tag that was attached.
    {{gwi:684207}}

  • newbiehavinfun
    12 years ago

    I did, but my husband got tired of its invasive properties and ripped it out. I miss it, but if I were to try it again I would plant it in a pot to reign it in. Passion flower attracts a LOT of bees, so maybe near a porch is not a great idea. Our idiot dog kept trying to eat the bees and got stung quite a few times.

  • mary_lu_gw
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    newbiehavinfun, thanks for the heads up about the bees but we have many of them in our garden already. The arbor swing is in the garden, not the porch. Also we are zone 4/5 and get down into the -20's during the winter. From what I have read there is no way it will survive our winters outside. But I do appreciate your input. Did you grow it year round? How big did it get for you? I am wondering if I grow it as an annual how large it might get before winter.

  • newbiehavinfun
    12 years ago

    It grew yearround in zone 7. It was here when we bought the house almost four years ago. Last year it was huge and starting to cover my entire porch. It was originally planted to go up a birdhouse post five feet away from the porch (not sure what year, though) and it suckered its way over. At first I thought it was so pretty , going up the railings of the porch, but then it hit a growth spurt. I think you might have the right idea, because it won't be able to become a monster if you're treating it as a houseplant.

  • plantmaven
    12 years ago

    They are sooo invasive here also.

    Would you like a white, Constance Eliot, to go with your purple? I will be happy to mail you one or 10.
    I let this one live, but kill all her children.

    Seriously, if you want one I will be happy to send you one.

    Kathy

    {{gwi:621164}}

    {{gwi:630386}}

  • journalbee
    12 years ago

    lovely pic plantmaven. the first pic almost looks like faces.
    tfs

  • organic_kitten
    12 years ago

    I grew it for a while, then it revealed how invasive it could be by sprouting up in the daylily beds! There were multiple invaders. It took a couple of years, but I think we are free of them. That being said, they are lovely and the idea of growing one in a pot is tempting, but digging the last ones up was hard, repetitive work; you dug up one and two grew in its place. I'll probably stick to growing clematis and honeysuckle.
    kay

  • mary_lu_gw
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Kathy, thanks for the offer! If this ones does well I will take you up on your offer next spring! Purple and white together would look fantastic! I am afraid it is already getting to warm to mail it this year and have it survive?

    Gosh if I was in a warmer climate all of the replies saying how invasive it is would really make me stop and think before I planted it. Sure hope our -20+ winters does it in! :-)

    Would it be hard to grow inside over winter? Has anyone here done that?

  • natal
    12 years ago

    Mary, according to a quick Google looks like you should be able to grow it indoors.

    It's not invasive in a bad way if you've got the room to let it roam and it doesn't keep coming back once you pull it out ... unless you let it crawl into a neighbor's yard and then have to deal with 'their' passionvine, lol.

    Here is a link that might be useful: growing passion flower indoors

  • wiley1983
    10 years ago

    I looove passion flowers and have been trying to start one from seed for a long time and am having no luck, can someone please help me out with this problem??????????? Can you start them from a clipping or no?? Can someone send me one?? pleeeease? I have many many seeds i could trade!

  • plantmaven
    10 years ago

    I no longer have the white passion flower. Or any other passion flower.

  • Kippy
    10 years ago

    If you all were in SoCal, i would be happy to give you a small plant of the edible kind of passion fruit plants. They are not nearly as invasive as the non edible one some one gave us years ago. Still trying to kill that one off.

    {{gwi:684208}}

  • kathi_mdgd
    10 years ago

    We have a red one and a purple one.Both bloom very well,but the purple one is very invasive,we find it coming up in different parts of the yard so I go around pulling it out.The red one doesn't seem invasive.Never have seen an all white one,those are pretty Kat.
    Kathi

  • lovesangels
    10 years ago

    I would love to have a white or red passion flower vine, if anyone has any to spare, I have an heirloom varity of sweet pea, thats pink,purple.
    i have moon flower seeds, and hollyhock, in burgundy, white with pink centers, pink for trade or will pay postage thanks,

  • cenepk10
    10 years ago

    I was too scared ! So I took the seed pods given to me by a sweet friend and threw them over the back fence & in the front of my property across the street which is the very edge of a tree farm. Then the county mowers came & gave their maiming haircut with the most awful machine that destroys all the natural beauty & makes me cry for weeks... Will report back next year !

  • flowerladylorraine
    10 years ago

    I have two kinds that grow in our tropical cottage gardens. One is tiny and pale, the other is large, beautiful and has a sweet scent. It is the one pictured below. This blooms every year, but earlier this summer we had about 3 weeks of rain and I think all that water killed the vines. I'm hoping they will sprout again as they do pop up all over the place.

    I just got some cuttings for a red flowering one and I hope at least one of them will root.

    Kathy ~ Your white one was gorgeous.

    FlowerLady

  • agardenstateof_mind
    10 years ago

    Wiley, I have plenty of little sprouts coming up from my lavender-flowered passiflora incarnata and would be happy to share a few bare-root shoots if I can find any more this late in the season (I just finished pulling & discarding a bunch, as I already have 4 potted and rooted for an upcoming local plant swap.)

    My plant was a gift sent bare-root from a fellow gardener in the southeastern U.S., where these plants are native, up to Virginia and southeastern Pennsylvania. It is perfectly winter-hardy without protection other than the usual winter mulch of shredded leaves in my USDA Zone 7 garden on the mid-NJ coast. Don't despair if you don't see anything in spring - these didn't earn their name "Maypop" for nothing! Due to our cooler spring this year, mine was up quite late, but has made up for it.

    I don't know how well it would fare through a zone 6 winter, but it wouldn't hurt to try. I would recommend planting it in a large, deep nursery pot sunk into the ground, as once established they do send up shoots quite a distance from the mother plant.

    Let me know if you are still interested - there should still be time for it to establish some roots before the soil cools.