Echter's Plant Finder

Other Names:  Perfumed Passion Flower, Grape-leaf Passion Flower

Brand:  Monrovia

Description:

A truly spectacular vine for the garden; the large crimson flowers are very distinctive; fruit is edible but quite sour; wonderful for covering an arbor, trellis or lattice, the flowers are individually beautiful close up

Ornamental Features

Crimson Passion Flower features showy lightly-scented crimson star-shaped flowers with white eyes at the ends of the branches in mid summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its lobed leaves remain dark green in color throughout the year. It produces dark green berries with white spots from mid summer to mid fall.

Landscape Attributes

Crimson Passion Flower is a multi-stemmed annual with a ground-hugging habit of growth. Its medium texture blends into the garden, but can always be balanced by a couple of finer or coarser plants for an effective composition.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Crimson Passion Flower is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Accent
• Hedges/Screening
• General Garden Use
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Crimson Passion Flower will grow to be about 15 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 30 inches. As a climbing vine, it should either be planted near a fence, trellis or other landscape structure where it can be trained to grow upwards on it, or allowed to trail off a retaining wall or slope. Although it's not a true annual, this fast-growing plant can be expected to behave as an annual in our climate if left outdoors over the winter, usually needing replacement the following year. As such, gardeners should take into consideration that it will perform differently than it would in its native habitat.

This plant should only be grown in full sunlight. It does best in average to evenly moist conditions, but will not tolerate standing water. It is not particular as to soil type, but has a definite preference for alkaline soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This species is not originally from North America.

Crimson Passion Flower is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. Because of its spreading habit of growth, it is ideally suited for use as a 'spiller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination; plant it near the edges where it can spill gracefully over the pot. It is even sizeable enough that it can be grown alone in a suitable container. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden.