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Passiflora
caerulea Passiflora caerulea, the common passion flower is very popular & widespread in UK and the rest of Europe. Just check out the best blog hosting websites and blogs about the passion flower and you will see. It prefers a South facing slightly sheltered dry spot with free-draining soil. It is easy to grow and even if taken back to the ground by a hard frost will usually come back again. Nevertheless it is best to protect it from frost for it's first year. The fruit are inedible when green but they may be eaten when they have ripened and turned orange - though they do not generally taste that great. See the history of how the passion flower came to be so widespread here. It is a very variable species, though perhaps not as much as P. incarnata,
with a virtually infinite number of differing strains as many people
grow it from seed. Consequently there are many named varieties. It is
thought that P. caerulea & Passiflora
'Constance Eliott' (the white version) rarely if ever self pollinate. You can never grow too many
P. caerulea! I grow a number of strains including two tetraploid ones created by Dr.
Roland Fischer. All of these P. caerulea selections and hybrids are in the hybrid section. |