Made is the USA

Passiflora malacophylla bloomed recently and is continuing to do so in solid numbers for a first growing season. I'm told that only a few people in the USA have this species, and that only one other is known to have had it bloom. It's a vigorous plant with charming small white flowers. If I can hybridize it, then I might have another winner on my hands.

P. edulis has a bud on it after waiting 3 years since I planted the farmers market seeds. P. racemosa has some nice fruits, P. x belotii has 1 fruit, P. caerulea 1 fruit, P. vitifolia 2 fruits, and P. morifolia ... 20 fruits? That species self-pollinates without hesitation.

I'll have to wait for the fruits to fall so that I can plant these seeds, but I'm excited by some of the prospects from this summer.

Dysosmia Cross

I've seen a few Passiflora sublanceolata x Passiflora foetida crosses lately. They look pretty nice, and mine was just a few months behind when I first started seeing this Dysosmia cross.

Avocado Trio

Normally in the supermarkets one finds the Hass Avocados, and they're good. They're tough skinned so that they  aren't easily ruined, but they're not as tastey as some other varieties. The ones that I have tasted (and are better tasting) are Bacon, Zutano, and Fuerte. The latter is my favorite, but to eat them you have to wait until they seem mushy and overripe. However, once they've reached that point they are just perfect for lunch time sandwiches. So, with some seeds in hand, I decided to make little trees. All three sprouted in water and I transferred them into little pots, which they quick out grew. So now they're up potted and happily growing in the June gloom. I haven't done the research to see how many years it will take before they're ready to bear fruit for me to pick, but it will be worth the wait. By that time, maybe I'll have a yard in which to plant them.

Epiphyllum in the Litter Box

With the Decaloba subgenus Passiflora blooming prolifically, it was nice to finally get some new color in the yard. True, P. loefgrenii, P. racemosa 'buzios', P. caerulea, P. foetida, and P. x belotii are all blooming, and they all look nice. But having something new is fun. These Epiphyllum flowers are huge. It's not hard to see why people enjoy this genus. Despite the kittens that were using the planter as a litter box and digging up the roots a bit, this one has survived to provide a really nice bloom.

Less than Exciting Exsudans...Or Bryoniodes??

Another Passiflora bloomed for the first time today. P. exsudans has been a solid growing plant, with interesting foliage, but the flowers are quite boring even for the Decaloba subgenus. If it weren't the first time that it has bloomed; I probably wouldn't even be making the post. The plant is quite hard to find in the U.S. though, so perhaps I can use it to trade for something a little more exciting.

After posting these pictures to the Facebook group "Passion Flowers Online" I've determined that there was a mix up. Either I or my the PSI seed bank mislabeled the seeds or the plant. It matters little, but this little plant is actually P. bryoniodes.

More Morifolia than Imagined

Passiflora morifolia has proven to be a very strong growing plant, but moreover it seems to set fruit with more ease than any other Passiflora that I've every seen. Every single flower that has opened has set fruit. The flower isn't remarkable, but it's also a Decaloba so one shouldn't expect too much. Regardless, it has added some much needed green to the cinder block wall behind my house.

Fuzzy Feline Friends

Recently, after returning from vacation, I discovered that my plants were being guarded by some tiny little fuzzy gargoyles. It seems a mother cat found my yard to be an ideal location to keep her litter of five kittens safe. She wasn't wrong, but I made it a priority to get them fostered/adopted before they grew to a size that would allow them to scale the walls and fences and leave my yard. There's just too much traffic and too many large dogs for me to let them just grow up and move out. So, I arranged to have the five of them picked up. In the end only three were fostered out because two friends from work ended up adopting one each. It has a been a couple of weeks now and they're already growing like weeds. Anyway, the mother (and as of a couple of days ago, the father) are still prowling around and I'll keep trying to catch them to have them fixed and adopted too.