Passiflora / Tacsonia

[Josue Diaz]

I've become interested in passifloraa over the past year. I'm growing some for their fruit (edulis - Frederick & Red Rover, lingularis), and others for the flowers (antioquiensis, decaisneana, and this parritae x tarminiana hybrid called 'Oaklandia'). Most of the others are going plants which haven't bloomed or fruited for me yet. This particular hybrid performs so well here for me though, it has flowers on it every month of the year but blooms the most in fall and spring. 

Are any others out there into this genus? I'd love to find a source of pure parritae. 

[metalfan]

That is a beautiful flower! I love passiflora but here the butterflies eat it all.

[Silas_Sancona]

Oaklandia is a nice cultivar..  P. manicata "Linda Escobar" ( pictured below ) looks similar but seems to be more intense red-orange, and has a brighter blue halo around the throat of the flowers..



@Josue Diaz You should try and find Passiflora "Purple Tiger".. Huge leaves / Flowers ( also fragrant ).. and Fruit, if produced.. If i remember right, fruit is supposed to be sweet also.  Very vigorous grower and likes heat / moisture. Would probably do best w/ some shade there though. Might be slightly cold sensitive, but we sold them back in San Jose..  @metalfan, Surprisingly, the Fritillary and Zebra Longwings weren't all that interested in Purple Tiger when i had it growing over a chain link fence when in Bradenton.. They preferred the smaller flowered, native sp. i also had growing at the time..   Have heard that any of the red / wine-colored flowered varieties ( ie: Lady Margret ) should be avoided since they possess a chemical in the leaves that is bad for the Caterpillars..



Really want to try P macrophylla, one of the tree-tyes Passifloras. Flowers might not be all that exciting but the leaves alone would be worth growing it.

Baja native P. palmeri, and our native P. mexicana, foetida, and arizonica  and the Australian sp. / varieties would probably do well there also.  You might look over / contact Grassy Knoll Plants for P. parritae.  Could swear i had seen it listed there in the past.  Lists some of the other stunning Tacsonia sub- types also. 

[metalfan]

I don't know if I believe that about Lady Margaret. I had an absolutely gorgeous one growing in a bed where my sunroom and dining room make an 'L' and its all windows so you can see everything. It was so vigorous I had to trellis it in 2 places, it grew like lightning and was just huge and looked like it was going to spread all over creation. Flowers were fabulous. Then one day, the Gulf Frits moved on and just swarmed it. When the cats hatched out, they ate the ENTIRE VINE. And it was a huge vine. It was draping in my Queen Palm and brugmansias and big crinums and over into the lower bed all over the Mexican Fans and Hedychiums. We got to watch an actual butterfly nursery in action. Cats just kept coming and kept eating and they made their cocoons all over the windowsills and other plants in the bed. When they started hatching out, it was like science class for my daughter, who was about 12 at the time. You could sit at the dining room table and watch them hatch out and dry their wings and fly away. It was really cool, there may have been 300-400+ butterflies produced. Once they were gone, I thought the vine would come back from the roots, but they had eaten it so utterly, it never recovered. I have been interested lately in getting some more passes, I want the Batwing and some of the variegated ones with the purple leaves but cannot find them here

[Missi]

Yes, my 'Lady Margaret' killed off all the gulf fritillary larvae, so I killed it! It may appear that it's not killing them, because they fail to thrive for weeks until they finally die, but it does. After I killed off that plant, I replaced it with 'Purple Possum'. Excellent fruit.

[metalfan]

Wow maybe my plant was mislabeled and not Lady Margaret? It was certainly red. It didn't kill ANY larvae, they all hatched. By the hundreds.