Passion Flowers Beauty and Food©

Painting and article by Arlene Wright Correll

We have a fence that divides my brotherís land and home from ours. Trying to be healthier and to save gas we have decided to walk up our very long driveway, turn right, walk some more to the main highway, turn right, walk along the main highway, which is probably dangerous, turn right again and walk down Georgeís long driveway to visit them in the evening. Then we have to do the reverse except with all left turns. This walk takes us about 25minutes each way.

My brother mows about 3 of his 12+ acres and one day as we did this walk, which we do about 3 or 4 times a week I suggested that a path about 4 foot wide and 800 foot long be weed whacked from our fence to the end of his mowing and all agreed to this great idea. With that in mind, one day Carl rode our riding mower up the long way and mowed this path.

When he returned he said. “Look what is growing along a good section of our fence.” “Oh”, says I, “I know what that is” as I looked at the flower, but it was right on the tip of my tongue and stayed there for about 3 hours until I ran out into his studio and said, “That is a Passion Flower!”

It all came flooding back to me. About 8 years ago I had planted some of them along that fence and I never did see them because our mower guy kept running them down and I had completely forgotten about them. However, for some mysterious reason, he was not mowing that close any longer and this year they are all over the place.

These 3 inch diameter flowers are very beautiful and very unique growing. Right on schedule, since this was the end of June, they had started to bloom for July and will continue until our first big frost.

The Passion flower grows on a vine that can get to be up to 15 feet and it must be grown on a fence, trellis or you can let it run amok on trees or shrubs.

Often referred to as Maypop it is sometimes seen as a roadside weed throughout many Southeastern United States and since it is prone to grow in large masses in ditches and open fields the Passion Flower was nicknamed Maypop because it just seemed to pop out of the ground in May. This was how I got the seeds while scrounging in a field one day. I had done some research and learned that the seeds had to be soaked in warm water for 12 hours and then I could sow them indoors in early spring. I never did that, I just sowed them where they now are. When sown indoors it said it would take about a year to germinate, well these seeds had about 8 years because someone kept mowing them down until this year and since we were doing a lot of traveling abroad about that time I did not want the care and feeding of indoor plants.

In early 1500 it was planted by early missionaries as a house plant and these people believed that the petals, rays and sepals symbolized features of the Christ crucifixion. Further research told me that this plant makes an excellent house plant if you grow them in containers in bright light. Not full sun. Well these vines at the fence get full sun and they seem to be doing all right. Once you have some of these vines you can take cuttings which will take 2 to 3 months to take root. I have not done any cuttings of this plant.

This plant produces a fruit that is an oval berry slightly larger than a chicken egg and this is called Passion fruit which is edible, but very seedy. Many people use it to make Passion Fruit jelly. However, I have discovered that it is a good food for certain species of butterfly and their larvae so I leave it as it is and do not bother the fruit for jelly making.

This plant grows well in zones 5 to 9 and although the tap root is killed by the frost the Passion flower vine will pop back up spring.

The path walk from our home to my brothers now only takes 10 minutes each way and we get to see all the lovely purple and white Passion flowers.

Author Resource:-> For more gardening or cooking information click http://www.learn-america.com/
To see Arleneís Gardens and to read her gardening diaries and to take a walk through her pictorial garden or click on Arleneís Books where you can download or buy her gardening & cook books, including her new book, “The ABCís of Wine and Beer Making”. Many of her articles written for Greenthumbarticles have paintings she has created of the subject and they can be seen at her “How to Do It” site. Remember to check out her artwork, especially of her fruits and vegetables. Arlene says, “All my royalties from the sale of my books go to the St. Jude Childrenís Research Hospital and I thank you for visiting my site.”

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