Hi Mark
My best advice is to contact Strybing as they are the experts on this. Tacsonia can all be quite difficult. What I would say is that woody cuttings will do better than soft green ones and I would root them indoors in shade. See tips in link below. I have some pics of P. parritae here
http://www.passionflow.co.uk/passiflora-parritae.htm and P. x exoniesis here
http://www.passionflow.co.uk/passiflora-exoniensis.htm
Myles

Here is a link that might be useful: Passiflora cuttings

Myles,

Thanks for the great advice--I'll look into it.

My impression is that Strybing's goal is to make these plants available to people, not turn a big profit. Because of that I do expect that they will be helpful. I say this because the plant I bought was $12. Other plants such as P. antioquiensis, P. antioquiensis x P. parritae and P. x exoniensis (a larger 1 gallon plant) were $15.

Thanks again Myles--Strybing got back to me immediately. I understand we're not supposed to quote emails these days, so I'll summarize the info that was passed along by the plant propagator.

Seeds are easiest, and cuttings are difficult but not impossible.

Use cuttings of 6-8 inches with 2-3 leaves with bottom heat. If no bottom heat, try warm with high humidity (put in a plastic bag). Use perlite only; soil will lead to rot.

Interestingly, this is exactly how I root cuttings already. I'm surprised they recommend bottom heat and/or warm temps--I have always read that Tacsonias like it cooler.

As I mentioned above, Twadewinds suggests that this hybrid (or at least the reverse cross) is easier to root than parritae (which I understand is extremely difficult). I was hoping that the slightly lower price for this plant was a reflection of a greater ease of propagation. Now I wonder if it is in fact a seedling--I should have asked.

Someone else privately recommended using an aeroponics chamber, which would be a very different approach. If anyone knows of people using these for antioquiensis, parritae or their hybrids I would be interested.

I'll try to remember to follow up with the results of this method.

Thanks.

Mark,

Exoniensis x parritae seems to be particularly easy to root from cuttings, either with or without bottom heat. I used rooting hormone, perlite, and high humidity. I've had some develop good roots in only 2 weeks.

Your plant was definitely grown from a cutting of the original hybrid plant at Strybing, which first flowered about 3 years ago. It should probably do all right near San Jose, but you might try to give it a little shade on hot days. It will benefit being transplanted to a bigger pot too.

Dave,

Thanks for all the info--that's great to know!

I finally got around to rooting some cuttings. The plant is in a 5 gallon pot and is in the process of turning into a monster. Even now, removing some material for a number of cuttings is barely noticeable.

As Dave indicated, these cuttings are very easy to root, yet I was surprised how easy they were. I don't have extensive experience rooting Passiflora, but so far this is the easiest one I have tried.

Here's what I did. I cut two node cuttings, the bottom cut about 1/4 inch below the node and dipped in Rootone. I removed the bottom leaf. I rooted these in perlite in plastic cups with holes punched in the bottom. Another cup was taped to the top and provided close to 100% humidity. I set up 3 cuttings--one in a windowsill and two under a compact fluorescent. One of the latter was at room temperature. The other was at room temperature with bottom heat.

We had 3+ days of a heat wave, with temperatures outside in the 90s. The cuttings were in the warmest room of the house, with temperatures normally 70-75, but 80 or even a little higher during the heat wave. So the cutting with bottom heat probably got a little warm.

I was pretty invasive, checking the cuttings every couple days. After 12 days roots began to appear from the cuttings under lights. The one in the windowsill took 2 or 3 days longer, presumably because of the cooler nights.

Today I took 10 more cuttings. 5 of them are two node cuttings, as before. I decided to try 5 single-node cuttings. I have a hunch that they will work.

As I say, the plant grows like a weed, and the cuttings root almost as easily as coleus. This promises to be a spectacular hybrid--I'm hoping I'll see mine bloom in the near future.

Because of this, I'd like to make the plant freely available--i.e. for the cost of sending it. Boxes are free from the post office, so that would be the cost of Priority Mail, which I believe is $4.95 everywhere. Hopefully the cuttings I just set up will also root quickly; if so I should have a few available soon. If the 1-node cuttings work, I should be able to generate large numbers quickly.

If I get overwhelmed I may have to limit this. Presumably not too many people have read this thread to the end...

I'm hoping I can get feedback from people about how the plant does in various climates--possibly start a discussion online. I doubt it would take more than a couple degrees below freezing, so I mainly mean tolerance of warmer temperatures (especially those parts of the country with warm nights). The fact that the cuttings rooted over such warm conditions leads me to wonder whether the vigor of the plants extends to an unusual temperature tolerance.

Anyway, drop me a note if you might be interested in trying this plant. I don't have any available right now but I might as early as a month or so from now.

I just dug up a cutting--this is the one with bottom heat. I set this up on 4/14, so it is 18 days old:

Perhaps it roots better than Coleus after all.

hin mark...i would definitly like to receive one of the cuttings.i cant go into to much detail now but i would be more than willing to pay for postage or if you are intrested in trading i have at least close to 30 varietys for trade rooted .if you are intrested let me know and ill send u a list of the ones i have.im in florida so hope it will grow down here.ill be back just pushed for time tonite...

I would like two - will you please email me and put Passiflora in the subject line? Thank you!

It's best to directly email me--If you click on "my page" it gives you an place to click to send me an email.

I'm a bit concerned that people will look at the site and see a thread with a zillion follow-ups and read it out of curiosity. I'd prefer that people who took the time to read through a long thread because they found the subject interesting be the ones who request a cutting.

I'll have to limit it to one each, and of course I should emphasize I just started rooting new cuttings yesterday, so it will be a few weeks--assuming they root as before. These things are not always easy to predict.

I won't have an unlimited supply--hopefully I will have a fair number.

passioncrazy,

Please email me--I have no way of reaching you since you don't have your email listed.