Re: Flowering vines

I have P. 'Coral Seas', P. vitaflora, and "the blue-purple one" in 
Santa Barbara.  Coral Seas and the blue one are planted on the north 
side of the house and fence and do very well. They reach into the sun 
and bloom.  Coral Seas hosts Gulf Fritillery butterflies whose larva 
eat large amounts of its foliage - so I planted a second one.  We'll 
see if they can eat all of that!  I love the orange butterflies 
hanging out around my place.  The vines do not require all that extra 
water, I think, because they are on the north side.  The passion 
vines planted on the free standing chain link fence around the golf 
course near by, didn't do very well and they took them out.  My P. 
vitaflora is in sun and doesn't do very well.

For a chain link fence in sun here, the best I see is trumpet vine. 
Either purple (Distictis 'Rivers')- my favorite, or the red one whose 
botanical name I do not know.

Jane Reese


>No one seems to have answered this latest, so I will give a little 
>info.  There are many varieties of Passiflora.  Some like filtered 
>shade/sun, and others are quite happy in full sun.  Several, such as 
>P. mollissima, are rampant growers, and will cover a chain link 
>fence (and anything else that doesn't move fast enough) quite well. 
>Most would love the temperature of San Diego.  None are drought 
>tolerant, and all want moderate water.  On the other hand, you can 
>kill them by overwatering, also.  They also attract butterflies. 
>If you can supply the water (and good soil and a very deep muclh 
>will reduce the water requirement somewhat), I could recommend 
>P.mollisima or P. mixta for a fence.  P. mixta has the advantage of 
>the flowers being upfacing, instead of mollisima's downward hanging 
>flowers.  I have seen the variety Coral Seas on fences in the SF Bay 
>Area in full sun, but don't know whether it would do as well in 
>SanDiego's heat.  There are several varieties that produce!
>  edible fruit, but they are not as great at fence covering.  You can 
>find more information on the edible varieties at the California Rare 
>Fruit Growers website.  Exotica Nursery in Vista, CA carries a 
>number of edible varieties.
>
>*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>  Don Bowen wrote:
>
>  >Was there a recent mention of something called "Passion Flower?"  Can
>  >anyone tell me the culture of this plant?
>  >

_______________________________________________________________________

Jane Reese
E-mail:  jreese@silcom.com
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