Passionflowers The following pictures were taken by Paula Szilard while she was attending the Passiflora Society International Meeting in early September at Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, Florida. There were approximately 100 species and cultivars on display there. Unfortunately, because of the hot weather, not all of them were blooming. The meeting was attended by members from United Kingdom, Netherlands, Venezuela, California, Connecticut, New York, Texas, Florida and many other states. The first image is of Passiflora cincinnata, cv. Fabio, a cultivar of a colorful species growing in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela and one often used in hybridizing new varieties. The second one is Passiflora ‘Inspiration,’ a hybrid of P. cincinnata and P. incarnata by Roland Fischer and a successor to Passiflora ‘Incense,’ likewise a hyrid of cincinnata and P. incarnata. P. ‘Incense’ came out of a USDA program to breed a hardy passionfruit. P. incarnata, as many of you know, is one of the hardiest passifloras (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 5, -20 F to -10F). It does well here, but needs a place where it’s hemmed in and can’t spread freely. Unfortunately, all clones of ‘Incense’ were found to be infected with a latent virus. If the plant is healthy, there is generally no evidence of it. Now there is an effort in the trade to replace it with ‘Inspiration.’ It is more of an issue in areas where lots of passifloras are grown and where other plants could easily get infected by aphids and other insects which carry the virus from plant to plant. Along with many other people, I grew P. ‘Incense’ for some time without problems and someone at the meeting had healthy, rooted starts of it for distribution. Regrettably, while ‘Incense’ is hardy to Zone 6 (low temperatures -10 F to 0 F), “Inspiration’ is only hardy to 10 F above zero (Zone 8). It is quite possible that ‘Incense’ would survive in the city here, given a protected location and lots of mulch in the winter. Long-term survival in surrounding areas with routinely lower temperatures than Denver is more uncertain.

Passionflowers

The following pictures were taken by Paula Szilard while she was attending the Passiflora Society International Meeting in early September at Butterfly World in Coconut Creek, Florida. There were approximately 100 species and cultivars on display there. Unfortunately, because of the hot weather, not all of them were blooming.

The meeting was attended by members from United Kingdom, Netherlands, Venezuela, California, Connecticut, New York, Texas, Florida and many other states.

The first image is of Passiflora cincinnata, cv. Fabio, a cultivar of a colorful species growing in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay and Venezuela and one often used in hybridizing new varieties.

The second one is Passiflora ‘Inspiration,’ a hybrid of P. cincinnata and P. incarnata by Roland Fischer and a successor to Passiflora ‘Incense,’ likewise a hyrid of cincinnata and P. incarnata. P. ‘Incense’ came out of a USDA program to breed a hardy passionfruit. P. incarnata, as many of you know, is one of the hardiest passifloras (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 5, -20 F to -10F). It does well here, but needs a place where it’s hemmed in and can’t spread freely.

Unfortunately, all clones of ‘Incense’ were found to be infected with a latent virus. If the plant is healthy, there is generally no evidence of it. Now there is an effort in the trade to replace it with ‘Inspiration.’ It is more of an issue in areas where lots of passifloras are grown and where other plants could easily get infected by aphids and other insects which carry the virus from plant to plant. Along with many other people, I grew P. ‘Incense’ for some time without problems and someone at the meeting had healthy, rooted starts of it for distribution. Regrettably, while ‘Incense’ is hardy to Zone 6 (low temperatures -10 F to 0 F), “Inspiration’ is only hardy to 10 F above zero (Zone 8). It is quite possible that ‘Incense’ would survive in the city here, given a protected location and lots of mulch in the winter. Long-term survival in surrounding areas with routinely lower temperatures than Denver is more uncertain.