Passiflora is blue, cavalier star, passion flower ... Each of the names of this decorative creeper is fanned with romance and mystery. Flowers trustingly open towards the sun and look naive and touching against a background of dense glossy foliage.
When you get acquainted with this tropical plant in your memory the words pop up by themselves: "In all of you, darling, the outfits are good." Indeed, passionflower pleases the eye with marvelous flowering, gives exotic fruits, imposingly covers supports, creating cozy shady corners in the garden.
What are you, passionflower?
Passiflora caerulea - "flower of suffering." From here came the second name - passion flower. Bright multi-layer flowers reach 9 cm in diameter. From a distance, each Passiflora blue flower resembles a star-shaped order. Therefore, they call Passiflora a cavalier star or an order-bearing creeper.
Flowers adorn the plant for a day, then fall off, and new buds bloom on the vine. Within 4 months (from spring to autumn) the blue passionflower blooms. The photo, unfortunately, does not convey a captivating light aroma surrounding the vine at this time.
Dissected palmate leaves, reaching 15 cm in diameter, on the upper side of the leaf plate are painted in emerald gloss, on the lower side are rough and matte.
After flowering, bright orange ovoid fruits appear on the vine. Passiflora blue fruits are tasteless, but edible and healthy due to the content of vitamins and minerals.
The evergreen vine grows rapidly, cleverly clinging to the surface with the thinnest long antennae-spirals.
The birthplace of most species of passionflower is considered to be South America. The original habitats of luxurious creepers are the foothills of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and impenetrable thickets along the Amazon coast. Some species of lianas are found in North America, Asia, Africa and Australia.
Once on the European continent, exot instantly won the hearts of flower growers.
Varieties and types of passionflower
For the first time since the appearance in Europe, the blue passionflower was found only in botanical gardens and among collectors of rare plants.
Rapid growth, evergreen foliage, luxurious flowering attracted the attention of breeders, and at the beginning of the XIX century the first hybrids appeared. A century later, the popularity of the outlandish creeper reached its peak: the plant is rapidly spreading among amateur gardeners and landscape designers.
Passiflora blue is only one of the species of evergreen vines of the Passionflower family. In addition to her, known:
Type of passionflower | Features |
Three-lane (trifasciate) | Contrasting stripes against a dark background of palmate leaves. The flowers are white or pale yellow, with a smell of lilac. |
Tetrahedral (giant granadilla) | The length of the lashes is 15 m. The fruits are juicy, sweet, reach 30 cm. |
Racemose | Deciduous species. The leaves are three-lobed, palmate. Red-blue flowers are arranged in pairs or in brushes. |
Reed | The fruits are sweet. The flowers are snow-white or pink. |
Gentle (passion flower is the softest) | Fine-toothed leaves. On the pale pink background of the petals is a purple crown. |
Tender (Banana) | The diameter of bright pink flowers is up to 12 cm. Fruits abundantly. |
Edible (crimson granadilla) | White flowers with a purple hue. Sweet fruits. In Europe, the plant is known as passion fruit. |
Changeable | Small flowers are pink or purple. |
Winged (Brazilian passion fruit) | Small sized flowers are orange or red. The fruit has a pleasant aroma. |
Among the varieties and hybrids the most famous are:
- Constance Eliott with five-fingered leaves and snow-white flowers.
- Regnellii with a long and thick "crown".
- Lavander Lady with pale pink petals.
- Grandiflor with flowers reaching 20 cm in diameter.
In the conditions of home breeding, the blue Passiflora Cassiopeia has successfully established itself - an exotic with a contrasting expressive appearance of large flowers: a dark blue crown on a snow-white background of petals. Yellow-orange fruits are very decorative.
Indoor cultivation
Exotic liana is thermophilic, but unpretentious and unpretentious. If you create the usual conditions for the southern beauty, then she will delight for a long time with luxurious flowering.
For passiflora, blue care at home is to comply with certain requirements:
- The soil. Composition: equal shares of leafy soil, neutral peat, humus with the addition of coarse sand. Drainage is necessary so that the water does not stagnate at the root system.
- Lighting. Plentiful. In spring and summer - in an open sunny place. The permanent residence of the tropical beauty is on the south window with constant access to fresh air. In winter, additional lighting is required, because the plant needs light for 12 hours.
- Temperature. 20-26 degrees - during the growing season and flowering, 14-18 degrees - during the dormant period.
- Air humidity. Elevated. Dry air causes buds to fall. To increase humidity, it is recommended to regularly spray the vine with filtered or settled water.
- Watering. From April to October - plentiful and regular. It is impossible to fill and dry the liana. In winter, watering is moderate, but it must not be stopped, since moisture is vital for a plant with evergreen foliage.
- Top dressing. In March-August, complex universal fertilizers are used. During rest, the liana is not fed.
Compliance with these simple rules will help passionflower grow strong, healthy, flowering abundantly. We must not forget about the support. A powerful liana needs support. If there is no artificial support, then passiflora will begin to braid its own shoots with antennae. This will lead to weakening of the plant.
Transfer
If the passion flower has grown greatly, it is closely in the planting capacity, you should think about a transplant.
In this case, the earth is moistened to soften. The liana is carefully removed from soft soil, the earth is shaken off the roots and carefully transferred to another container.
An adult plant is transplanted only if necessary. A more favorable option would be to select part of the land from the container and add fresh soil rich in humus.
Passiflora blue transfers the transplant easier in early spring, until sap flow begins. Transplantation is also possible in the summer, but only if there is no intense heat. In the dormant period (autumn and winter), any manipulations with the plant are undesirable.
After transplanting around the vines, they create a greenhouse effect by increasing the humidity of the surrounding air.
Pruning vines
Successful cultivation of blue passiflora at home requires regular pruning. This gives the liana splendor and stimulates abundant flowering. It is necessary to remove the old shoots, leaving untouched 1/3 of the length.
Pruning is performed starting from the second year of life, in the spring, before the start of sap flow. You can combine this process with a transplant.
If the plant has grown too much, it is allowed to perform additional pruning in the summer, but very carefully so as not to damage the shoots on which flower buds are laid.
Outdoor cultivation
Landscape designers and amateur gardeners are increasingly using blue passiflora in open ground.
In the southern regions of Russia and in the middle zone, this species of unpretentious liana can be cultivated as a perennial. In winter, the plant must be carefully covered, trying to reliably protect the root system. To do this, use dry leaves or covering material. In the case of freezing at the ground level, the liana gives an abundant root shoot in spring and quickly grows green mass, stretching up to 5-8 meters in length.
Passiflora can be transplanted into open ground when it reaches 2 years of age. The place should be sunny, calm. The landing pit must be provided with a high-quality drainage layer. A natural support for the creeper in the garden can serve as trees, for which she successfully clings, aspiring to the sun.
Passionflower is the perfect complement to the atmosphere of the sunny south in a Mediterranean-style garden. Liana is planted in the ground or placed in a garden pot on the terrace (for the winter, a container with a heat-loving flower must be moved from the street to the house or dug up).
Passiflora blue from seeds at home: the secrets of successful reproduction
Passionflower is usually propagated in one of the following ways:
- apical cuttings in conditions of high humidity, heat and light;
- seeds.
Passiflora blue Cassiopeia propagates more easily than all other varieties. Growing from seeds consists of several stages:
- Preparation of the substrate (sheet soil is mixed in equal proportions with humus, peat, sand).
- Scarification of seeds, that is, the destruction of the upper dense shell, because the seeds are in a kind of hard shell.
- Soaking seeds in a stimulator (aloe juice, Epin, Zircon) before swelling.
- Germination of seeds (temperature 25-35 degrees, lower heating, ventilation, soil moisture).
- Transplanting hatching seedlings into individual containers.
Seeds can be purchased in the store or get them yourself from the fruit. It should be borne in mind that freshly harvested seeds have the best germination ability.
Diseases and Pests
Violation of the conditions of the tropical vine can lead to diseases:
External signs of the disease | Source of problem | What measures should be taken |
Rotting of the stem | Excess watering | Provide recommended watering and humidity |
Fall of flower ovaries | Dry air |
Lack of flowering | Waterlogging |
Buds are not tied | Low light | Provide the necessary lighting |
Death of creepers | Anthracosis | The plant cannot be saved. The flower and planting container must be destroyed |
The appearance of black dots on the bottom of the leaf, the leaves turn pale and deformed, the buds fall off | Thrips | Use of insecticides (phytoverm, actelik, actara) |
The appearance of dots on the sheet and a thin whitish web, sluggish growth | Spider mite |
White wax coating similar to cotton wool | Mealybug | The use of drugs with cypermethrin |
Green mass is actively growing, but there is no flowering | Excessively nutrient soil | Replace soil with neutral, passiflora-appropriate |
The plant grows poorly, does not bloom | Acidic soil |
Weak flowering | A lot of old shoots in the absence of young | Trim |
If you carefully pay attention to the plant, then passiflora will favorably accept blue care at home, in the photo and in reality, pleasing with its unusual flowering.
Fulfillment of desires, or Passiflora the sorceress
Passionflower is also interesting for its useful properties in the composition of medicines:
- soothes (improves sleep, relieves nervousness and irritability);
- removes a fever;
- normalizes hormonal levels;
- relieves cramps and rheumatic pains;
- lowers blood pressure;
- reduces dependence (alcoholic, narcotic).
It should be remembered that the blue passionflower is poisonous, so you need to work with the vine with gloves and with caution.
There is a belief that if you make a wish at the moment when the bud of the passionflower opens, it will certainly come true. True, this or fiction, probably not so important, because Passiflora blue has enough other advantages: a beautiful appearance, modest demands, longevity.