Passiflora and Impatiens...er...Impatience.

It's the middle of January, but it feels like the beginning of Spring. It was in the upper 70's yesterday. My passiflora (which survived the miticide), all have buds and nice new green leaves. It seems as though the crinkling and chlorosis is gone with the mites. To say that I'm happy about that is an understatement. The picture on the left shows some older chlorotic leaves that were infested with mites at one point. Interestingly, and somewhat of an annoyance, is the fact that the dead mites seem to cause a little fungus to grow on their exoskeletal corpses which causes a brown dead spot on them. Between the chlorosis and fungal spots, I really want to clip off all of the old leaves...but it's not Spring yet, and I don't want to cripple my plants. For now I will just have to settle for the new sprigs that are shooting out everywhere. The picture on the right is new growth on the same vine as the chlorotic leaves. It's very satisfying to see the new leaves grow perfectly instead of malformed and diminutive. I think it's going to be a great Spring!

Soon it will be Spring, but I am impatient. I'm really hopeful for fruit this season. I will have to count on the hummingbirds because I can't count on the bees...they seem to have all gone mad. Every now and then I'll find a little dead one, or one that is soon to depart for bee heaven. Last year there was a bee swarm in my front yard. There must have been a queen in the mass somewhere.

Here's the list of the passiflora that I have on the way this season. It has a few small free-flowering varieties on there, as well as some rare species and new hybrids. I pretty much have the whole color spectrum accounted for now. Except for yellow. I've tried to get P. cintrina to grow twice now, with no success. I'm going to try again after this season if all goes well with the pests.

•     P. cyanea
•     P. holosericea
•     P. nephrodes
•     P. parritae
•     P. alata
•     P. sanguinolenta
•     P. serratifolia
•     P. coccinea
•     P. 'Manta'
• xiikzodz × coriacea
•     P. 'Jennifer Grace'
• quadriglandulosa × poslae
•     P. 'Sunburst'
• gilbertiana × jorullensis
•     P. 'Exoniensis'
• antioquiensis × tripartita var. mollissima