FREE: 10 Blue Crown Passion Flower Seeds

The listing, 10 Blue Crown Passion Flower Seeds has ended.

Blue passion flower "Passiflora caerulea" is an extremely fast growing vine that may grow up to 30' a season. This is one of the hardiest passion flowers. It is primarily known for its intriguing creamy-white flowers with purple-blue zoned coronas. The vines cling to just about anything with their tendrils, but do still need a trellis or arbor for best effect.

In the milder regions of the Pacific Northwest, blue passion flower is considered an evergreen, being hardy to 5 oF. The attractive foliage is 4" across, glossy green and very deeply lobed. Its shiny leaves are palmately lobed with five parts, but this can vary from as few as 3 all the way up to 9. Passion flower blooms in early summer on current season’s growth. The white and purple-blue flowers are striking for their size: 4” across is common. As flowers wilt down they give rise to large edible fruit, orange in color, with red seeds on the inside. Most people do not harvest the fruit as it lacks any real flavor.

In Zones 8-9 passion vine does best in sunny locations. A south facing trellis would make an ideal spot for training this vine. If there is a hard freeze the plants will make a good come back from its extensive root system.

It is recommended to pretreat Passiflora seeds before planting. They contain a hard seed coat and are very slow to sprout. There are various pretreatment methods, but the simplest is to soak the seeds for 24-48 hours in warm to the touch water, just prior to planting. Optionally, seeds can be lightly scarified with sand paper to provide some permeation on the seed coat.

Once pretreated, plant seeds 1/2-1" deep in moist, sterile soil. Keep soil temperature consistent at 70-85F, with some day/variation in this range. Cool soils will significantly delay seed germination time if not inhibit germination altogether. Standard room temperature can be too cool for proper germination.

Passiflora caerulea germination tends to be slow and erratic. 2-8 months.