Snow in Summer with Passiflora tucumanensis

One of the plants that I purchased this Spring at South Coast Botanical Garden was Passiflora tucumanensis. It was a vigorous grower, and recently before a week long vacation, I noticed that it had some immature buds. I returned home from that vacation to find something a little unusual. I expected a lovely little corona of banded filaments. What I got was a nearly pure white flower with a tiny hint of mauve on the inner series of filaments. Although it wasn't what I was expecting, it's a very nice flower and I don't have any all white plants since my P. 'Quasar' dried up. It's a keeper, and since P. umbilicata is blooming, I'll try to make P. umbilicata x P. tucamenensis alba.

Babies with P. umbilicata!

P. umbilicata has has plenty of buds on it since it finally reached the top of the pergola. But, those buds haven't exactly been cooperative with opening. They seem to get stuck and need a little coaxing to open fully. They're a very rich purple color, and mine seem to be mottled. I'm not sure if this is indicative, or if the partial opening and the mottling are connected and the plant is sick. It took me awhile to capture the proper color of P. umbilicata's petals and sepals, but it's definitely something different. I'm told that, although classified a Tacsonia, it is able to cross the subspecies lines. In fact, I know it can because I have a hybrid from a good friend that has P. umbilicata x P. tucumanensis in its lineage. My hope is that when my Astrophea bloom, I can cross P. umbilicata with those. That would be quite something.

One in the Palmeri...Sublanceolata

I woke up this morning for work, gazed out from the second story to see if any of my plants were in bloom. Particularly, I had noticed that there were shades of pink within the Passiflora palmeri bud the evening prior. From my vantage I could tell that the sepals were separating, but the flower wasn't in bloom yet. Throughout my morning I checked on its status, and little by little it peeled away it's layers until by the time I was ready to hop in the car, it was fully opened.

I took some pictures, enjoyed its rich pink petals and neat crown of purple speckled filaments, and then dabbed on some P. foetida pollen. We will wait and see if it's that easy.

Update: And now I've come to find that this species is no longer classified as P. palmeri. It's now P. sublanceolata, which doesn't make a good pun in the slightest.

Update 2: I have a nice lime sized fruit maturing! Unless it's "selfed", it should be P. palmeri var sublanceolata x P. foetida 'urbaniana'

Easy as Pie

My best friend and farmers' market fanatic decided to surprise me with a 1/2 pound of P. edulis fruit recently. What did she do with them? Turn them into pie (aka liquid cake)! I'm not sure what we did besides strain the pulp to extract the juice for the filling. I remember the buying the crust too, but I'm a miserable cook and just played sous chef where I could while she was making it. We had to add some passion fruit juice from a carton to yield enough liquid, but the result was a mostly fresh passion fruit pie that I devoured over the course of a few days with some mangos.

Another Day on the Penninsula

I went back to South Coast Botanical Garden again to see if any of the Decaloba in the greenhouse were in bloom. Answer: none. There were only a couple of P. 'Lavendar Lady' and the rest was all green and buds. Maybe in a month there will be flowers to see. It was a quick visit inside, and a slightly longer one outside the gates where the P. 'Blue-Eyed Susan' was in bloom by the bushels. The light was harsh, but I snapped a few shots before heading home.

Little Lady in the Leaves

A female Rufus hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus) decided to come to rest among the Passiflora Manta leaves today. She was huffing pretty hard when she came to land, but eventually calmed down, puffed out her feathers, flicked her tongue, and stretched her wings. Meanwhile I was sneaking up on her with my camera. I learned last summer that if I move very slowly, pause between steps, and use the camera body to cover my face, these little ones will let me get very close. Next time I hope there are some more flowers, and that there will be a shiny faced male glittering about.

Set Up for Summer

I can't believe I have 44 unique plants in 27 pots and in the ground. What's more is that I was able to compile the list from memory...apparently I spend a bunch of time outside poking my plants on the weekends and after work during the week. Most of my plants are in their first season, so there probably won't be a huge flower flourish this summer, but next season might be amazing. I have a many more Decaloba this year and a couple of Astrophea that will be really interesting in time. I hope my patience holds out, and that I can get all these plants established before the winter months come.

Container 1:

• P. holosericea 
• P. 'Manta' (xiikzodz × coriacea) 

Container 2: 

• P. × belotii (alata x caerulea) 

Container 3: 

• P. membranacea (Strybing variegated)

Container 4: 

• P. 'Sunburst' (gilbertiana × jorullensis) 

Container 5: 

• P. trisecta 

Container 6: 

• P. cirrhiflora 

Container 7: 

• P. membranacea 

Container 8: 

• P. serrato-digitata

Container 9: 

• P. macrocarpa

Container 10: 

• P. luzmarina x (? x ?)
• P. actinia x (? x ?)

Container 11

• P. glandulosa 

Container 12

• P. gritensis

Container 13

• P. 'Erl' (P. 'Blue-Eyed Susan' x P. 'Blue Bouquet')

Container 14

• P. discophora
• P. bogotensis

Container 15

• P. guatemalensis
• P. misera

Container 16

• P. karwinskii
• P. porphyretica var. angustata

Container 17

• P. tucumanensis

Container 18

• P. loefgrenii

Container 19

• P. nephrodes
• P. caerulea

Container 20

• P. pendulifora

Container 21

• P. New Hybrid 2

Container 22

• P. pittieri

Container 23

• P. lindeniana

Container 24

• P. tarminiana 'Bailadores'

Container 25

• P. x decaisneana
• P. nigradenia

Container 26

• P. stipulata
• P. sublanceolata (fmr. palmeri)

Container 27

• P. tulae
• P. malacophyla

Container 28

• P. umbilicata

In the Ground:

• P. edulis 'Flavicarpa'
• P. 'Blue Horizon' x P. gritensis
• (P. 'Pruney' x gritensis) x gritensis
• P. foetida 'urbaniana' 

Plants in 4" - 1 gal Pots: 

• P. New Hybrid 2
• P. aff gibertii
• P. lindeniana  
• P. nephrodes
• P. 'Blue-Eyed Susan' (incarnata × edulis) × (incarnata × cincinnata)
• P. 'Raspberries and Cream'
• P. umbilicata
• P. subrotunda