Gulf Fritillary

Before a flock of pigeons flew over and noticeably scared her, there was a gulf fritillary butterfly laying her eggs on my Passiflora. I wonder what she thought when she encountered my collection...perhaps something along the lines of, "Jackpot!" I stood with a camera watching her for 10 minutes or so trying to capture the moment when she stuck her egg to the leaves of my plants. I wasn't as lucky as I hoped, but I did capture a few shots of her and the evidence she left behind.

In Memoriam: Passiflora 'Erl'

My very first original hybrid bloomed today!! It's P. Blue-Eyed Susan x P. Blue Bouquet or if you prefer ((P. incarnata × P. edulis) × (P. incarnata × P. cincinnata)) × (P. caerulea × (P. amethystina × P. caerulea))...all that. For short, I'm going to register it as Passiflora 'Erl'. I've had the name picked for quite some time; ever since I discovered these plants. I wanted to use my very first opportunity to register a hybrid in memoriam of the brother lost to someone very important to me and many others. He drove a baby-blue Mercedes, many years older than he, so in a way it seems fitting. To draw any more analogies would be disparaging. But, if this is the only hybrid that I'm able to contribute to the enthusiast and horticulturist community, then I'm proud that it has this name. I'll distribute it freely, and in my garden and in others P. Erl will live on.

Urban(iana) Garden

Passiflora foetida 'urbaniana' has been blooming for a couple of weeks, but high enough up on the pergola to make taking a picture not simple. There were plenty of buds that were developing and dangling down to head level, so I decided to wait it out. Today I pointed the camera and snapped a couple to find that this dainty little flower has hairy stigma.