tumblingtomatoes, They had a few different types of Passiflora for sale growing on trellis at Rockledge Gardens the last time I looked. You might want to give them a call. Passiflora edulis is the type that is grown commercially for it's purple colored passion fruit.

Also, I ordered a few types online before from Grassy Knoll and they arrived healthy and in great shape. Unfortunately, a few horses and ponies chomped them up, but that is another matter. I would recommend these guys online and it sounds like P. edulis is what you are looking for:
http://gkexoticplants.com/products/Passiflora_edulis_4_pot-35-0.html
Good Luck.

tumblingtomatoes,

I think P. edulis is your best bet overall. If you want to start it from seed you want it fresh, and the fresher the better. The best way to do this, if possible, would be to buy fresh fruit. I really don't know, but perhaps a Latin market would be the best in your part of the country if not available where you normally shop? Germination will still probably take 2-4 weeks, I think. Purple passionfruit (P. edulis f. edulis) vs. P. edulis flavicarpa (yellow) may be an option where you are--P. edulis f. edulis is hardier. Red ones tend to have both in their background and most if not all are hardier than flavicarpa, I think. Hopefully someone who knows about this plant can tell you about P. edulis flavicarpa in Florida.

Fruit from seeds will be variable in quality, that from named varieties should be of more uniform quality. Some people sell seeds that came from a particular variety--I have no idea whether this increases the chances of good fruit.

I strongly agree with the recommendation of Grassy Knoll. If you speak (or write) to Elizabeth, she can also recommend other species/hybrids besides P. edulis. That would be a very useful thing to do--she sells more passiflora than anyone in the country and she is very nice and extremely helpful. The only problem with Grassy Knoll is that they don't ship this time of the year.

If you are interested in free P. edulis seedlings from store-bought fruit I can send you a couple. It's unlikely but I might have something better--I'm wating to hear from someone else. I do know that there is someone in Florida who has offered cuttings of P. edulis in the past, but I don't want to speak for him or post his info--again email me. So those are a couple possibilities, but you can't go wrong with Grassy Knoll.

But if you want to do it by seed (which will take a couple years) make sure you get the freshest, by whatever means. Hopefully someone here can recommend a company.

The general rule about fruit is only eat it when it falls off the vine. The vines and immature fruit tend to be poisonous. Check out Myle's Irvine's (passionflow's) site:

http://www.passionflow.co.uk/passion-flower-passiflora-toxicity.htm

Just to clarify the following:

"Fruit from seeds will be variable in quality, that from named varieties should be of more uniform quality. Some people sell seeds that came from a particular variety--I have no idea whether this increases the chances of good fruit."

What I mean:

Seed gives variable fruit

Clones of named varieties (i.e. plants derived from cuttings) are of known quality--hopefully this means high quality

Seeds from named varieties: I'm not sure if that increases the chance of better fruit. Again the seedlings will be variable.

Thanks everyone for the great info, am going to check out some of the places/sites you suggested. :)

Tumblingtomatoes if you want some P. edulis seed I'd be more then happy to send you some for postage. Send me an email.

My favorite trusted source is Raintree Nursery in Morton Washington, they have a mail order catalog and online. I'm doing an edible landscape on five acres so I buy substantially from them each year as I add on stuff. They have Five varieties of Passion Flowers and say caerulea is used to flavor beverages, capsularis is edible, "Frederick" edulis is 'delicious', 'sweet ambroisia',and Black Knight edulis has 'excellent flavor'. They also have Maypop (incarnata)- but in your zone I'd go for one of the edulis.