Passion Flower Blue: Growing and Care

Passionflower blue, cavalier star, passionflower ... Each of the names of this decorative vine is fanned with romance and mystery. Flowers gullibly open to meet the sun and look naive and touching against the background of dense glossy foliage.

When you get acquainted with this tropical plant in memory, the words themselves pop up: "In all of you, darling, dresses are good." Indeed, passionflow pleases the view with a wonderful flowering, gives exotic fruits, imposingly covers the supports, creating cozy shady corners in the garden.

What are you, passionflower?

Passiflora caerulea - "flower of suffering." Hence the second name - passion flower. Bright multilayered flowers reach 9 cm in diameter. From a distance, every flower of passionflower blue resembles a star-shaped order. Therefore, they call passionflower a cavalier star or a liana-bearer.

Flowers decorate the plant for a day, then fall off, and on the vine new buds are blossoming. Within 4 months (from spring to autumn) the passionflower blues blue. The photo, unfortunately, does not convey the enchanting light aroma surrounding the creeper at this time.

Broken palm leaves, reaching 15 cm in diameter, on the upper side of the leaf plate are painted in emerald gloss, on the underside - rough and matte.

After flowering on the vine, bright orange fruits of an egg-like appearance appear. Passiflora blue fruits are tasteless, but edible and useful due to the content of vitamins and minerals.

The evergreen liana grows rapidly, deftly clinging to the surface with the finest long antennae-spirals.

The homeland of most species of passionflower is South America. The original habitats of the luxury liana are the foothill part of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and hard-to-reach thickets along the Amazon coast. Some species of lianas are found in North America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

Having got on the European continent, exot instantly conquered the hearts of flower growers.

Varieties and types of passionflowers

At first, after the appearance in Europe, the blue passionflower was found only in botanical gardens and in the collectors of rare plants.

Rapid growth, evergreen foliage, luxurious flowering attracted the attention of breeders, and in the early 19th century the first hybrids appeared. A century later, the popularity of the outlandish liana reached its peak: the plant is rapidly spreading among amateur gardeners and landscape designers.

Passionflower blue - only one of the evergreen species of the family of the Passionflowers. Except it, are known:

Kind of passionflower	Features
Three-band (trifasciate)	Contrasting stripes on a dark background of fingered leaves. The flowers are white or pale yellow, with the smell of lilac.
Four-sided (giant grenadilla)	The length of the weaves is 15 m. The fruits are juicy, sweet, reaching 30 cm.
Ligneous	Deciduous view. Leaves are three-bladed, palmate. Red-blue flowers are located in pairs or in brushes.
Tongue	The fruits are sweet. Flowers are snow-white or pink.
Gentle (passionflower is the softest)	Leaves are finely toothed. On the pale pink background of the petals is a purple crown.
The most delicate (banana)	Diameter of bright pink flowers - up to 12 cm.
Edible (crimson grenadilla)	White flowers with a lilac shade. Sweet fruits. In Europe, the plant is known as passion fruit.
Variable	Small flowers are pink or purple.
Winged (Brazilian passion fruit)	Small-sized flowers are orange or red in color. The fruit has a pleasant aroma.

Among the varieties and hybrids are most known:

• Constance Eliott with five-fingered leaves and snow-white flowers.
• Regnellii with a long and dense "crown".
• Lavander Lady with gently pink petals.
• Grandiflor with flowers reaching 20 cm in diameter.

In the conditions of domestic breeding, Passionflower Blue Cassiopeia - exotic with a contrasting expressive appearance of large flowers has successfully proved itself: a dark blue crown on a snow-white background of petals. Yellow-orange fruits are very decorative.

Cultivation in room conditions

The exotic liana is thermophilic, but unpretentious and unpretentious. If you create the usual conditions for the southern beauty, then she will long be pleased with the luxurious flowering.

For passionflower blue care at home is to meet certain requirements:

1. The soil. Composition: equal shares of leaf land, neutral peat, humus with the addition of coarse-grained sand. Drainage is necessary so that water does not stagnate near the root system.
2. Lighting. Abundant. In spring and summer - in an open sunny place. Permanent residence of a tropical beauty - on the southern window with constant access to fresh air. In winter additional lighting is required, because the plant needs light for 12 hours.
3. Temperature. 20-26 degrees - in the period of vegetation and flowering, 14-18 degrees - during the rest period.
4. Air humidity. Increased. Dry air leads to the shedding of buds. To increase the humidity, it is recommended to regularly spray the liane with filtered or standing water.
5. Watering. From April to October - abundant and regular. Fill and overdry the vine can not. In winter, watering is moderate, but it can not be stopped, since moisture is vital for the plant with evergreen foliage.
6. Top dressing. In March-August they use complex universal fertilizers. During the rest, the vine is not fed.

Compliance with these simple rules will help passiflora grow strong, healthy, abundantly blooming. We must not forget about support. A powerful liana needs support. If the artificial support is absent, then the passionflow begins to weave his own shoots with his mustache. This will weaken the plant.

Transfer

If passionflower has grown much, it is tight in the landing capacity, you should think about the transplant.

In this case, the soil is moistened for softening. The liana is carefully removed from the soft soil, shaken off the ground from the roots and carefully moved to another container.

Adult plants are transplanted only if necessary. A more favorable option would be to select a piece of land from the container and add fresh soil rich in humus.

Passiflora blue is easier to tolerate transplantation in early spring, until the sap flow begins. It is possible to change in summer, but only if there is no intense heat. During the rest period (in autumn and winter) any manipulation with the plant is undesirable.

After transplanting around the vines, a greenhouse effect is created, increasing the humidity of the surrounding air.

Trimming the creeper

Regular successful pruning is required for the successful cultivation of passionflower blue at home. This gives the liana a splendor and stimulates abundant flowering. It is necessary to remove old shoots, leaving untouched 1/3 of the length.

Pruning is performed starting from the second year of life, in the spring, before the beginning of the sap flow. You can combine this process with a transplant.

If the plant has overgrown excessively, it is permissible to perform additional pruning in the summer, but very carefully, so as not to damage the shoots on which the flower buds are laid.

Outdoor cultivation

Landscape designers and amateur gardeners are increasingly using passionflower blue in the open.

In southern regions of Russia and in the middle belt this type of unpretentious vine can be cultivated as perennial. For the winter, the plant must be carefully covered, trying to reliably protect the root system. To do this, use dry leaves or cover material. In the case of freezing at ground level, the liana gives an abundant root shoot in spring and rapidly builds up the green mass, stretching to a length of 5-8 meters.

In the open ground passifloru can be transplanted when she reaches 2 years of age. The place should be sunny, windless. A pit should be provided with a quality drainage layer. The natural support for the vine in the garden can serve as trees, for which it successfully clings, seeking to the sun.

Passionflower is an ideal addition to the atmosphere of the sunny south in the garden of the Mediterranean style. Liane is planted in the ground or put in a garden pot on the terrace (for the winter, the container with the thermophilic flower needs to be moved from the street to the house or prikopat).

Passiflora blue from seeds at home: the secrets of successful breeding

Passionflower is usually propagated in one of the ways:

• Apical cuttings in conditions of high humidity, heat and light;
• Seeds.

Passiflora blue Cassiopeia reproduces more easily than all other varieties. Cultivation from seeds consists of several stages:

1. Preparation of the substrate (the leaf earth is mixed in equal proportions with humus, peat, sand).
2. Scarification of seeds, that is, the destruction of the upper dense shell, because the seeds are in a kind of hard shell.
3. Soak the seeds in the stimulator (aloe juice, "Epin", "Zircon") before swelling.
4. Germination of seeds (temperature 25-35 degrees, lower heating, ventilation, soil moistening).
5. Transplanting seedlings into individual reservoirs.

Seeds can be purchased at the store or obtained from the fruit themselves. It should be borne in mind that freshly harvested seeds possess the best germination.

Diseases and pests

Violation of the conditions of the tropical liana can lead to diseases:

External signs of the disease	Source of the problem	What measures should be taken
Decay of the stem	Surplus watering	Ensure recommended watering and humidity
Fall of flower ovaries	Dryness of air
Lack of flowering	Overmoistening
Do not tie buds	Insufficient illumination	Provide the necessary illumination
Liane's death	Anthracosis	The plant can not be saved. Flower and planting container must be destroyed
The appearance of black dots on the bottom of the leaf, the leaves turn pale and deform, the buds fall off	Thrips	Use of insecticides (fitoverm, aktelik, actara)
The appearance of dots on a sheet and thin web of whitewash, sluggish growth	Spider mite
White wax coating, similar to cotton wool	Mealybug	The use of drugs with cypermethrin
The green mass is actively growing, but there is no flowering	Excessively nourishing soil	Replace the soil with a neutral, appropriate to the needs of passionflowers
The plant grows poorly, it does not blossom	Acidic soil
Flowering is weak	Many old shoots in the absence of young	Trimming

If you are attentive to the plant, the blue dress care at home, on the photo and in reality pleasing with its unusual flowering will be favorably received by passiflora.

Execution of desires, or Passionflower-sorceress

Passionflower is interesting and its useful properties in the composition of medications:

• Calms (improves sleep, removes nervousness and irritability);
• Removes fever;
• Normalizes the hormonal background;
• Relieves convulsions and rheumatic pains;
• Lowers the pressure;
• Reduces dependence (alcoholic, narcotic).

It should be remembered that passionflower blue is poisonous, therefore, it is necessary to work with a liana in gloves and with caution.

There is a belief that if you make a wish at the moment when the bud of passionflower is blossoming, then it will certainly be fulfilled. True or fiction, it is probably not so important, because Passionflower Blue has other advantages: beautiful appearance, modest demands, longevity.