Hi,

I'm considering growing a few passionflower vines, which i find very attractive. Which species/varieties would you advise for a zone 8 (possibly 8b) gardener?
Many thanks
-- Kacey

Hi Kacey,

To start with, i would recommand 3 species :

- Passiflora lutea. Not very showy, but very frost resistant, at least USDA zone 6, if not less. Little yellowish flowers.
- Passiflora incarnata, a.k.a. Maypops, which is a very interesting passionflower : as frost hardy as P. lutea, fragrant beautiful flowers, and edible fruits. A must have
- Passiflora caerulea, a.k.a. the blue passionflower. In fact, fragrant white & blue flowers, showy, semi-decidious in zone 8b, decidious in zone 8, evergreen in zone 9 and warmer.
Less hardy than P. lutea and P.incarnata, but while the 2 former are herbaceous vines, this one develop woody stems, and does not die back with frost.

Hope it helps
Laurent

Laurent,

Thanks! In fact I had heard about the maypops, think I'll try it. Maybe I'll turn the yellow one down for the moment, as it's not very showy. BUT i'm most interested by the blue one, P.caerulea. I'll check at a local nursery this week-end.

-- Kacey


[ Edited by Kacey on 2005/3/16 8:06 ]

Hi
I love these vines, but beware, these plants can take a lot of space when at ease... Be ready to prune a lot, especially with P.caerulea, which is not herbaceous. (tends to produce a lot of offshoots also)