Blue Passion Flower

Blue Passion Flower
(pass-iff-FLOR-uh) (see-ROO-lee-uh)
Passiflora caerulea
Synonyms: Hardy Passionflower

Wordless Wednesday

Red Passion Flower

Red Passion Flower

Passiflora caerulea

(pass-iff-FLOR-uh) (see-ROO-lee-uh)

Synonyms: Passion Vine

Wordless Wednesday

Red Passion Flower

Red Passion Flower

Passiflora caerulea ‘Grace Ann’

(pass-iff-FLOR-uh) (see-ROO-lee-uh)

Synonyms: Passion Vine

Isn’t this an amazing flower? The color alone was so striking and when inspected closely it had all of the otherworldly shapes and bits that a regular passion flower has. This specimen was growing in the water garden/fountain area of the New York Botanical Garden. I have to admit at marveling at their ability to grow this plant indoors. Mine always do poorly in the greenhouse and usually lose vigor completely after a couple of winters. This seems to happen even with an adjustment of the growing conditions and while I haven’t given up hope completely it is close and this year’s specimen will probably be sacrificed to the frost gods.

Red Passion Flower

Red Passion Flower
Passiflora
(pass-iff-FLOR-uh)

With a bit of a heavy heart I am posting this red Passion Flower to mark the passing of our friend, client, veterinarian and over all good person Dr. Brian. He had fought his brain cancer long enough and finally gave up Saturday. A true friend and advocate for the animal world he worked tirelessly to help them as they came across his doorstep in every condition imaginable. As a person he loved his garden more than most people I have met and it was lovely. We had just finished adding a large new area to the garden when he was diagnosed. He had been planning for his future at the farm.

A typical Brian story was when I would call him to check in on him he would inevitably turn the conversation to my health issues (since we both had brain ‘things’ last year) and he gave me a lot of good advice. His sense of humor about things would often put things in perspective for me. He touched the lives of many people like that and I think that is a wonderful legacy. I could go on and on about the different interactions I had with this man but I am just going to say goodbye, friend.

“All that live must die, passing through nature to eternity.”
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Red Passion Flower

Passion Flower
Passiflora (pass-iff-FLOR-uh)

We didn’t grow any Passion Flower this year as the vines weren’t available in the spring and I have pretty much given up on keeping them in the greenhouse over the winter. So I was a little jealous when I came across this red beauty in a friend’s garden. These flowers lend such an exotic and tropical touch to our gardens up north that they are always nice to have. There is quite a bit of symbolism in the flower and the flowers are used medicinally.

Florist's Cineraria - Today's Flower

Florist's Cineraria
Pericallis cruenta
(per-ee-KAL-liss) (kroo-EN-tuh)
Today’s Flower

This plant’s colors continue to amaze me. They are so vibrant and since it comes with a simple Daisy shaped flower that makes them even more special. This is the darkest colored one I have seen. I really love the blues that the Cineraria comes in but this wine colored one was really nice. I don’t have any experience in growing these but would like to try it sometime. Next time they are at the nursery I am taking a few home.

Cineraria is a tender perennial that likes shady areas. Apparently the slugs like them too so you need to take precautions against them. They seem to be easily grown from seed and there are several mixes available. They can reseed in warmer climates.

I read an interesting article on Reuters the other day. It was called:

Thirsty plants can Twitter for Water with New Device
By Robert Muir

Washington (Reuters) - "Chances are you've never had a conversation with your house plants but if they could talk, what would they say? "Water me."

Researchers at New York University's interactive telecommunications program have come up with a device that allows plants to tell owners when they need water or if they've had too much via the social network blogging service Twitter.

"Obviously plants can't talk or Twitter directly, so we have to help them along with that," said Rob Faludi, co-creator of the device called Botanicalls."

The rest of the article is here

Definitely falls into “they have thought of everything category”. Like most electronic items the price is going to have to come down before I buy it.

Since it is Sunday and that means it is Today’s Flower day I thought I would share this unusual flower that was blooming at work. These pictures aren’t the greatest and please humor me as a proud parent. This vine has been at work for two years now. It grows in the container garden in the summer and in the conservatory in the winter.


Bat-leaf Passion Flower
Passiflora coriacea
(pass-iff-FLOR-uh) (kor-ee-uh-KEE-uh)

I remember reading after buying this plant that it doesn’t flower much and being a little disappointed with that (it turns out that is wrong after further reading). Although the foliage alone makes it worth cultivating, it really does look like a bat. It hasn’t flowered previously and it was surprising to see it blooming this week. The flowers are really small maybe the size of the center of a regular passionflower and the small purple fruit is ornamental. Even though there were only two or three flowers on the whole vine I do hope a fruit grows.


Passiflora coriacea is native to Central and South America. There seems to be some question about how hardy this plant is. It grows at high elevations in its native habitat so it must have some cold tolerance but I don’t believe the 15 deg. F I saw on one site. That is still not as cold as it gets here in Connecticut so it will continue to spend winters inside.

Wow, was it windy here yesterday. The peak gust was 49 mph. It just doesn’t feel like spring out there. More like some kind of weird limbo. This is one of the Pansies we are growing this year.



For more flower pictures from around the world check out:
Today’s Flowers . It starts at 18:00 GMT on Sunday. We are working all day but I hope to check out some of the postings.

Blue Passion Flower

Blue Passion Flower
(pass-iff-FLOR-uh) (see-ROO-lee-uh)
Passiflora caerulea
Synonyms: Hardy Passionflower, Maypops


This is one of the more exotic flowers you can grow in Connecticut. Several references said that it can live outdoors to Zone 6 but it has never lasted outside for me. We grow it in containers and it does fine but they need to be brought in at the end of the season. They seem to last only a couple of years in containers before they lose vigor. The containers grown vines have never produced fruit for me.

Many people recommend part shade for Passion Flowers but that doesn’t really work here in Connecticut. The plant needs full sun and moderate amounts of water. In the wild they can grow up to 32 feet but 10-12 feet seems to be tops in the pot.

Passionflowers are mostly native to the southeastern part of the Western Hemisphere. There are over 500 species and it seems every year that I find a couple of new ones growing here and there (usually at Botanical Gardens). There are a lot a lot of cultivars available for the home gardener now. Personally I have grown a couple of the red types and some of the blue flowered types and the cultivars are special but the species has its own beauty. The plant parts (stem, flowers, leaves) are used medicinally. They provide a calming effect on the users and is often mixed with Valerian to provide a stronger effect.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day-September

I remembered on Thursday that the 15th would be on Saturday so I rushed around the garden to get a few shots for Bloom Day. I should have remembered about the 15th since it is my wedding anniversary also. I don’t remember how long we have been married so I will have to figure out a coy way of broaching that subject. It has been awhile at this point, over 15 years but fewer than 20. Since we work together our relationship has a slightly different dynamic then most couples.

The Hydrangea at the top is ‘Tardiva’. It got so tall in this particular spot and is just a mass of white flowers. Long lasting and a dependable bloomer it is one of my favorite Hydrangeas.

So here are the some more shots in no particular order:

Rudbeckia nitida ‘Herbstonne’
Always a pleasant plant to have in the garden. It is really tall but doesn’t need staking.

Dwarf Pink Aster
This plant has been around a long time so it is a long lived perennial. I pinch it several times during the year so it is only about 8 inches tall.

Anemone x hybrida 'Honorine Jobert'
I applied a lighting effect in Photoshop to get a little more light on the bee. This is a wonderful perennial that is just coming on strong when everything else is giving up.

Passiflora 'Lady Margaret'
I had a little fun in PS with this one too. It is a really nice deep red Passion. I over wintered it and lately it really kicked in and is covered with blooms.

Tricyrtis
Hairy Toad Lily is one of my favorite flowers. Definitely doesn’t look like something that should be growing in Connecticut with its wonderfully exotic flower. I have been encouraging mine to seed and now have several hundred of them. The deer got into some of them but they seemed to shake it off and bloomed anyway (well, a lot of them did).

Abutilon megapoticum
I wish I had wrote down the cultivar name on this one. It is a little different than most Flowering Maples. The flowers are pendulous and don't open like the others. This is another plant that I successfully over wintered from last year. It started off slow but is covered with blooms now. I will probably try and save it again.

That is all I have time for right now. I am looking forward to seeing what everybody else has blooming in their gardens. Overall the garden has done well and it looks like we are going to have a colorful fall. That last bout of rain we had really helped out by refreshing everything. We are supposed to get a little more over the weekend, which will also be welcomed.

I have had other posts on most of these plants if you want more information on them. I was probably the last person on the Internet to know this but if you click on the Labels that will narrow down the search amongst the old posts.

To check out what Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is and see some other participants click here:
Carol's May Dreams Gardens

Passion Flower (Passiflora perusii)

Passion Flower
Passiflora perusii
(pass-iff-FLOR-uh)
Passifloraceae

I saw these two delicate Passionflowers in the Wave Hill Conservatory. The red one, although you could almost call it orangey, was blooming abundantly and seemed not to be going out of control like Passiflora caerulea does when it is grown inside. I didn’t know it but there over 500 species of Passionflower. This is the best reference to Passionflowers I found and ended up surfing around for a while was Passiflora Online.

If you have any questions about Passionflowers they should be answered there. I grow Passionflower in Connecticut in containers. This can be quite unwieldy but even though some are rated to Zone 6 I don’t see them making it in the ground around here. I have discussed my cultivation of the genus here and here. One of those posts tells the story of my famous Passionflower picture ;-).



Passiflora citrina was also blooming. It had an almost translucent yellow flower and nice buds. There was a third species, Passiflora murucuja, but the buds were closed up. It looked like, and I wanted so desperately, the flower would burst open any second but there was no joy. I even tried cajoling the bud to open with a gentle brush of my fingers but that didn’t work. I later read that the flowers are very short lived so maybe that was a spent flower I was trying to get to open.

My two Passions survived the winter in the greenhouse. Next week I am going to start bringing them out during the day and soon they can stay out for the season.

For further reading:
Passifloraceae

The botanical description of Passiflora said:
“Stamens 5 on a gynophore”. Which means: “A stalk bearing the gynoecium above the level of insertion of the other floral parts.” Which of course lead me to lookup gynoecium, which is “The pistil or pistils considered as a group”.

Lavender Lady Passion Flower
Passiflora x 'Lavender Lady'
(pass-iff-FLOR-uh)
(syn. P.'Amethyst')


The Passion Flowers seemed to have good year this year. I posted awhile back about the Red Passion Flower I was growing called ‘Lady Margaret’ and it has continued to bloom with abandon. I was not quite enchanted with one of the other Passions called ‘Lavender Lady’. This plant has come on strong in the late summer and has been exploding with flowers. What I like about these new, for me, Passion Flowers is they don’t seem to have the rampant growth that some of the species has, at least not when grown in a container. They are vigorous but it has been easy to keep under control. This plant was created by hybridizing P. amethystina x P. caerulea. The color, habit and cultivation of this plant are worth it. I am going to try and take it indoors.

Just a short post as I have been installing Belgian Block curbing the last couple of days and boy I’m tired. It takes a lot out of you. Just a couple of hundred feet more and I will be done.

I have a picture of a Blue Passion Flower on my other website. It isn’t that great but when I looked at the statistics it had been linked to over 100 websites and blogs. It used to bother me a bit but now I think it is funny and I sit back and see how many more sites will use it. It is copywrited but that doesn’t seem to stop people form using it.

Here is another picture of a Passion Flower that I am growing this year, it has wrapped nicely around my Golden Sweet Potato.

Passion Flower ‘Lady Margaret’
Passiflora (pass-iff-FLOR-uh)


My old Passion Flower finally conked out on me this year. It didn’t bloom too much last year and I decided to get some new ones for a large container garden I put out each year. After reading that old Passionflowers should be discarded and seeing the lack of bloom, the decision was easy. The container garden is made up of 15 fairly large pots and they get filled with various annuals. I usually plant some sort of centerpiece in each pot, like a rose or Canna lily and this year I used a couple of Passion Flowers. I sometimes get a little whimsical with these pots; it’s a chance to be a little adventurous. This one is ‘Lady Margaret’ and it is a brilliant crimson red. It flowers profusely, and is not quite as rampant as some of the species. Of all the other Passionflowers I've used this year, ‘Belotti’ and ‘Lavender Lady’ have done well.

There are over 500 species of Passions. ‘Lady Margaret’ is a hybrid between P. coccinea and P. incarnata. I only found out the religious significance of the name recently. I always thought the name had more to do with the passion the flowers brought out in their admirers. I will try and winterover this beauty in the greenhouse. It may be a little warm in there for them. I don’t cut them all the way back, however, as this can cause too much vegetative growth. I have really been enjoying this wonderful new hybrid Passionflower.