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All about passion

flowers and how to
grow them
The jungle blooms of the passion flower add flamboyant colour to
the summer garden. Hazel Sillver looks at the history of this
exotic climber and how to grow the hardiest forms

By Hazel Sillver
3 August 2023
:
 Passiflora caerulea Ernie Janes / Alamy Stock Photo

Common name: Passion flower

Botanical name: Passiflora
:
 Family: Passifloraceae
Type: Climber
Flowering time: Summer and autumn
Planting time: Spring
Height: 5-25m (16-82ft)
Spread: 2-10m (6-33ft)
Aspect: Full sun
Hardiness: Ha1-H4
Difficulty: Average to difficult

As far removed from an English cottage garden as you can travel, the passion
flower (Passiflora) is one of the most theatrical and exotic of plants. The weird
and wonderful blooms are embellished with many showy parts that together
remind you of peering into a kaleidoscope as a child: in the centre, the anthers,
stigmas, and ovary protrude over the filament rays, which are marked with
circles of incredible colour.

This peacock of flowers hails mainly from the Neotropical realm of Central and
South America, where it grows in mountainous terrain and rainforest. It is a
rampant evergreen that uses tendrils to either climb or scramble along the
ground or through thickets. The genus comprises around 600 species, which
bloom in shades of purple, blue, yellow, red, or white and produce fruits.
Passiflora edulis is the most edible and widely cultivated for its fruit juice, while
the foliage, roots, and fruit of some species are used in herbal and folk medicine
as a sedative or to induce hypnotic euphoria. Passion flowers are pollinated by a
range of wildlife, including bees, bats, and hummingbirds, and have a fascinating
symbiotic relationship with ants, who feed on the plants and protect them from
predators.

Passiflora were introduced to Europe in the eighteenth century and became

popular with the Victorians, who grew hybrids of them in gardens and
hothouses. Being tricky to cultivate outdoors, they fell out of favour, but have
enjoyed a surge in popularity in recent years, as gardeners look for exotic plants
:
 to create jungle-style borders.

The name is said to relate to the crucifixion, since passion stems from the Latin
passio, meaning suffering. Spanish missionaries in South America during the
15th and 16th centuries regarded the flower structure as a symbol of the passion of
Christ. At first glance, it seems rather a long stretch, but the filaments are
supposed to represent the crown of thorns, the ovary is the holy grail, the ten
petals are the apostles (minus Judas and Peter), the stigmas are the nails on the
cross, the stamens are the five wounds, and the tendrils are the whips used on
Jesus. The Japanese and Greek name for Passiflora – clock plant – is a lot more
obvious, since the blooms do look like clock faces. Some species have such long
filaments above their petals that they resemble marine life: P. actinia is known as
the sea anemone passion flower, and, if you saw P. quadrangularis underwater,
you could mistake it for a jellyfish. In India, the blue species are known as
Krishna’s flower, since the mesmerising purple-blue hue of the filaments is the
colour of the Hindu god.

Which passion flower to grow

:
 Passiflora caerulea ‘Rubra' Derek Harris / Alamy Stock Photo

The majority of species are tender and therefore fare well in a conservatory or
greenhouse. However, there are a few that will grow outside in urban areas and
milder regions of the UK. The most widely available is the blue passion flower
(Passiflora caerulea), which has ivory petals and rings of purple-blue filaments;
these blooms are produced throughout summer and into early autumn and
followed by egg-shaped orange fruit, which are edible but bland. Very similar, but
with bigger, better flowers is the hybrid ‘Damsel’s Delight’.

For even more colour, ‘Rubra’ is red magenta with a white necklace of filaments;
‘La Morellina’ boasts pink-violet petals and blue filaments; and ‘Betty Myles
Young’ is an amethyst flower with a black, white, and blue heart. Alternatively,
for more subtle exotica, ‘Constance Eliott’ has gorgeous white and cream flowers
with a green centre, and ‘Snow Queen’ is similar, but capable of much larger
:
 blooms and hardier.

How to plant passion flower

For outdoor growing, choose a sheltered warm wall, ideally in a south or west-
facing position. Passion flowers like their feet in very free-draining soil, so dig in
sand or gravel, if necessary, before planting. For the best results, plant in spring.

For those on heavy soils (such as clay), passion flower breeder Myles Stuart Irvine
(who has raised the resilient Riverside hybrids, including ‘Damsel’s Delight’)
recommends first potting up young plants in large, deep containers for their first
summer to encourage good root growth and overwintering them indoors, before
planting out the following year.

How to grow passion flower

Allow your passion flower plenty of space because, in the right conditions, it will
be vigorous – capable of 25 metres or more. If you need to prune it, wait until
growth begins in spring and don’t be too ruthless: for example, as when pruning
a rose, avoid cutting back the main stems.

Use a general fertiliser (such as Vitax Q4), but don’t overfeed – one dose per year
is sufficient. Too much food, especially nitrogen-heavy forms, can hamper
flowering.

The seven passion flowers recommended above should survive temperatures

down to –5-10°C. If you live in a very cold area, where winter temperatures
plummet below that, it would be better to grow passion flower in a conservatory
or greenhouse. Since it is the cold and wet of winter that can cause the roots to
rot, plants outdoors should be mulched well (for instance, with bracken or straw)
or the base covered with horticultural fleece, or both, in autumn. Plants indoors
benefit from heat around their roots – for example, via a heating cable running
through the soil or compost. Give passion flowers the protection they need
:
 during the winter months, and they will fill the garden with the exotic verve of
the tropics all summer long.

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