Have you checked out the Passiflora forum....
those are some beautiful flowers~I have been told that they grown crazy..maybe that is how they got their nickname..maypops....pop up here and there and everywhere!!
Lucky you...people pay big money for those plants around my area!
:o)

I didn't realize you could brew tea with them. I had them growing wild when I lived in MS too. Have you ever read the religious connotation of them? Check out this website if you are interested. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/flowers/passionflr.html

I have what I think are passion flowers popping up in one place on my property. The leaves don't look like the incarnata but like the yellow one, passiflora lutea. If I can get a good picture of the leaf I'm going to post it to Name that Plant. The bugs have been feasting on them so it's hard to get a good pic. They are really beautiful flowers! I looked up passion flowers online today and they sell for $9.95 each! You are lucky ;-)!

Nancy

I have Passion vine growing on the front of my Guest house. We planted them last year (two small tiny vines) and this year!!!! It is the most beautiful thing I have seen. The nive does "pop" up everywhere, but it is easily pulled up or mowed over when its in an undesirable area. I literally have a hundred blooms a day on it. Joey

I have incarta growing wild on my property also. I love my Maypops.
This link talks about tea and the history/lore.

Nancie

Here is a link that might be useful: a simpler way

Nancie, that was interesting reading. Thanks for posting it as my brother gave me a start of the vine this year---it is trying to go but don't know if it is going to bloom this year.

Susy

I took my maypop out of a ditch as a cutting and now I have them coming up everywhere. They are easy to pull up and I have them growing so as to shade my patio. I just happened to glimpse the flower three years ago in that ditch and I didn't know that they were native.

I don't think the vine my brother gave me is going to bloom this season. Will the vine itself come back next year or does it have to reseed back. A friend gave me one of the fruits---if I open it and dry the seeds can I replant them and will they grow? The fruit she gave me was green and fairly small.

Thanks, Susy

We have them growing all over our place. I mostly mow them down even though they are pretty. The vines do grow back. You do not have to reseed. Recently I noticed that there are purple ones and white ones on our place. I didn't know they bloomed white. I enjoyed your link Nancie.
Mary

I din't realize that they were edible until last year a lady had me try some ripe ones.She made a drink from them and jelly too.They were yellow when they were ripe,I think.Posy Pet

I've got a couple lil baby ones. From seed. Not sure which type. Mary , see if you can avoid mowing one of the white ones. I'm sure I didn't plant any white. Would give you a big ole hug if you were to save me a white :)

Passion Flower Jelly ? Humm interesting. Anyone try it ? And the tea ?

cricket

Not all Passifloras are edible. Be sure to hop over to the Name That Plant! Forum to be sure about identification.

Mary,

Passion flowers come in many sizes, shapes, and colors.
Click here for pictures. Many gardeners collect them as you can tell from the GardenWeb Plant Exchange Members who Have them listed on their exchange page.

The flavor of passion juice is one of the best in the world. Professional chefs often make elaborate, elegant desserts utilizing passion fruit. Here are more.

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Minute Maid has a Passion Fruit flavor in a can in the freezer section (even at Wal-Mart) which is delicious! (I highly recommend it!) Ben & Jerry's has a Purple Passion Fruit Sorbet which is to die for.

You want to harvest the fruit for the juice and pulp when the fruit has turned brown and is a bit wrinkly. There are other varieties which can be harvested based on color. The seeds are edible, a bit peppery. Describing the flavor is a bit like attempting to describe to someone what a strawberry tastes like... it tastes like passion fruit, and it's one that is easy to develop a craving for.

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AWESOME PHOTOS~
Thanks for sharing~

Those are beautiful. I did not think they would grow in this part of the country. Thought they were tropical.

Yes, they're beautiful and edible. They're also the only plant a pretty black and yellow butterfly called zebra longwing (Heliconius charitonius) will lay eggs on. The caterpillars eat the plant and then become butterflies, so be careful not to spray them or you'll miss the little beauties! Some people grow them just as caterpillar food because they want to watch the butterflies. There's a caterpillar pix here: http://www.lpb.org/programs/butterflies/gallery9.html

We have the vine in our hedge row... can the flowers be picked? Do they last?

One of my friends has tried to transplant passion flowers but they die, she was wondering if there were seeds in those pods that could be planted. I got a start from my uncle who called them Japanese umbrellas.

I've heard they are difficult to transplant. I grew some from seed this spring and they are flowering already! I planted mine in a container with a clear plastic lid and set them outside over the winter (see forum on winter sowing). They sprouted this spring, then I moved them to another spot in late May. I didn't have any trouble transplanting the little seedlings and planned to move them again in the spring but they've grown more than I expected. I think I should've gone ahead and put them in a permanent spot. They are too close together right now.

Thank you, I'll tell my friend how you started your plants

Just noticed today that I have four little golf ball sized fruits on my passion flowers that I just started from seed this year. I didn't realize they would fruit at such an early age so it was a nice surprise. : )

Have had my passion flower for 2 years and it has never bloomed. Have fed it starved it and this year mostly ignored it. Have huge vine lots of sun. So any suggestions?

What a coincidence. Well maybe it's because all of us are seeing passionfruits, I am too!

I have about 1000 feet of fence around my garden, and have been watching the wild P. Incarnata fruit developing, wondering if I should intentionally plant more to make use of all that bare fencing. The best of mine have gotten about tennis ball size. They don't really get yellow, purple, or red like the tropical varieties, they are usually green when they get ripe.

BTW, just wait till they fall off by themselves, or with a slight shake, as that is when they are ripe enough for eating. Don't try to pick them before they are ready, for a unripe one is insipid, dry, or flavorless. A ripe one is sweet-tart, with many black/brown seeds. You can swallow the seeds if you like, they are harmless, or simply place the fruit pulp in a blender with a small amount of water, pulse a few times, trying not to break the seeds, and strain off the resulting juice for drinking or cooking purposes.

P. Incarnata is reliably hardy here, and can really become a pest in a perennial garden, or in strawberries where I've been dealing with them as a weed.
I have been able to pull out suckers with almost a foot of pale white stem, and do this regularly, for several years off the same plant. I'm thinking this would make the best propagation material, and they should root easily. I will try this today to see what happens.

It just so happens that this weekend I did some research into whether this fruit has been improved horticulturally.
During the 80's, I owned a tropical fruit orchard in the Virgin Islands, and have grown the yellow-fruited P. Edulis, which I must say is far superior in color, flavor, and productivity compared to our local Incarnata.

My research was 'fruitful', in that I was able to get wind of info that told me USDA did some work hybridizing the tropical passionfruit with 'Maypops', to come up with something they coined 'passion-pops'. Sunday I wrote to them and requested further information, but no response yet.

If I get anything, I'll spread the news, you can click below to read the article.
Jay

Thought this was a great thread and it was about to disapear into never never land so am bumping it back up. I've seen some blooming not far from here.
vickie

I have been doing some brush hogging and we have the incarnata growing in lots of places. I have never tried to go back and harvest the fruit, may try to remember this year....just out of curiosity.

if anyone has any passion flower seeds i would dearlly love to have some, i remember my mom grew them when i was a child had a huge vine growing on a dead tree. now that she is gone i have been working on a memorial garden in her memory, and iam planting things i remember her growning when i was a child and also anything purple cause for some reason in her last few yrs of life purple became her favorite color thanks