PlantFiles: Passion Flower, Passionflower
Passiflora 'Incense'

I live in extreme Southwestern Kansas, and this is my first year here, and also my first year with PassionFlower experience. It took a while for it to get going, but last month I had a small explosion of blooms. But I have no fruit...any ideas why? Also, it does not seem to be spreading at all. As a matter of fact, my Black-eyed Susan vine is overtaking it now. It is a gorgeous, unusual flower, and the leaves are a very interesting shape. I hope it comes back next year. If not, I will definitely plant another one, and try it in a more sheltered place.

I think this is the variety of passion flower I have growing along my fence. I was told it was an Ohio State University hybrid, making it hardy in my Zone 5 garden. It has been VERY hardy for the past 2 years. It is now starting to send runners into my neighbor's lawn. The flowers are beautiful, however, and even though the Japanese Beetles love them, I love them more.

I echo the comments above about how prolifically Passiflora 'incense' will spread (it is THE MOST invasive plant I've ever grown!) I planted a few of the vines about four years ago. It began its march in a gradually widening circle away from the orioginal plants soon after planting. It spreads by underground roots. A new vine plant will pop up from the root nodes, supplying more energy for the roots to keep growing further, and further, and further. It has now climbed to the top of nearby oak trees and completely engulfed my backyard. I let it go because I had taken down some very large oaks that were a threat to my house structure in hurricanes. I had the tree surgeons leave the tree debris (saved a lot of money, avoided having the tree workers dragging debris through my gardens to the street which saved my plants from being destroyed, and the debris breaks down within a few years to form rich humus for the soil while providing native habitats for wildlife). The Passiflora 'incense' was able to completely hide the tree debris from sight. My backyard looks like one huge undulating passion vine. The scent is very heady -- smells like warm honey fresh from a beehive to me. At any given time, I do have dozens of Gulf Fritillaries and Zebra Longwings (both of which use Passiflora as a host plant) fluttering around in my garden. Their caterpillars seem to prefer the fresh, young shoots of Passiflora 'incense' and actually seem to show more of a preference for the Passiflora caerulea cultivars I also grow, probably due to the thinner leaves and more succulent stalks of caerulea. As noted above, the caterpillars do avoid the Red Passion Vine (Passiflora coccinea and also the Citrus-Yellow Passion Vine (Passiflora citrina. Many people in Florida report that their edible Passion Vine (Passiflora edulis) are decimated by the caterpillars, but they don't seem to eat these in my garden, possibly due to the smorgasbord choices they have from the several varieties of passion vines that I grow.

Jeremy

Passion Flower is native to Florida (though many do not know). It is beautiful, and the smell when it is in bloom is an obvious reason for the name "incense." One word of warning, this plant will send up runners, and the leaves are poisonous. But, you can eat the fruit, this is where we get "Passion Fruit" from. V-8 makes a good juice from it.
Good note: this is the larval plant for the Gulf Fritilary butterfly. These catapillars have stripped all of my plants, but not to worry, the plants bounce back! WARNING: not all passion flower strands will host the catipillars, there are (numerous) strains that will trick the butterfly to lay eggs, but the catapillars cannot obtain the proper nutrients to grow and turn into a butterfly, I believe it is the red passion flower not to plant for sure.

This is a very aggressive vine; flowers are beautiful w/ an intoxicating scent. The plant multiplies rapidly by sending out many, many runners. Is potentially root hardy to zone 6. Requires little if any attention.

My daughter gave me large fruit, from passion flower. I dried out the seeds and planted them. They overwintered in greenhouse and I plan to plant seedlings at my arbor this March 2005. I'm looking forward to successful experience with Incense (Passiflora).

Well, I have mixed feelings about this variety of passionflower. I first planted it several years ago and the butterfly larvae killed the vines before they could establish. So....when i decided to replant I purchased 5 vines(Incense is a bit hard to find in my area) to have some insurance against the butterfly explosion. Anyway, that year the butterflies did not show up so all of the vines did well. I planted the vines along a fence that has a large old juniper hedge that I hated. Within one season the vines covered the entire hedge...killing the junipers in the process and making passers-by stop and take pictures of the literally hundreds and hundreds of flowers blooming every day. It was amazing. Even the next year when the butterflies discovered the vines it was still amazing. By then, the vines were established enough to keep up with the larvae. In May I would walk out my door and there would be 50+butterflies fluttering around feeding, breeding, and doing what butterflies do. The drawback to these vines is that once established, you will NEVER be rid of them. They spread underground and come up 40 or 50 feet away in the lawn....they will sprout up and smother anything in the area. You must be diligent in pulling up the little vines or they will cover and kill everything in their path. For this reason I have decided to cut down the dead hedge they are growing on this year and attempt to either severely limit or eradicate them alltogether from my yard.
If you plant passionflowers just be aware that they will take over given a chance...and also if you plant them for the butterflies make sure of the variety you are planting. Not all varieties support butterfly larvae and can fool the butterflies into laying eggs on them that are doomed to die when the larvae cannot feed on the leaves. Do your homework. That said, anyone in the Houston/Galveston area is welcome to come dig up as many Incense vines as they can carry! **update** So I think I may have discovered what will kill this vine...7 feet of salt water in my yard during hurricane Ike! Right after the storm there were a few new shoots of my passionflowers coming up, but now it seems all are dead. This vine was quite extensive in my yard so it will be interesting to see if it is totally gone or just severely limited.

Hmm. I have five vines that were labeled 'Incense' incarnata x cinnicata. Same plant? The flowers look the same to this amateur eye. Perhaps a spelling error along the way?

Right now I'm letting a few hundred caterpillars munch them down for the winter and we're delighting in the butterflies.

UPDATE:
They were mislabeled. The correct spelling is "cincinnata." There are so many butterflies now that it's hard to see the vines!

third passionfloer i've had, first one that overwintered in my basement to thrive and bloom again. are the fruits edible? the flowers are
beautiful,scent is interesting. am pleased with the plant.

In Baltimore it died to the ground (of couse) and then practically took over the fence late the following spring, blooming profusely and scenting the entire yard! In coastal NJ, however, it just will not survive the winters-- in spite of us being Zone 7-ish here! I now keep it in a large pot and put it in a sunny south window to maintain it until it can get set outside (in pot) when the rest of the more tender collection goes out for the summer. It is in pre-burst bud today (6-24-04) and I see that the thrips have discovered it!

I have eight other varieties now, but Incense was my first and it has won my heart.

I live in zone 5 and this plant comes up every year each year it comes back thicker and thicker