Passion Fruit

Right now I'm so proud of my beautiful Passiflora edulis, commonly known as the Passion Fruit or Passion flowering vine. This is my third year growing it and as you can see, it is now bearing fruit for the first time. It also quickly overwhelmed the trellis, so Ron built an extended trellis nearly ten feet tall. Nothing fancy--It's just a tall post with some wire fencing attached. It will be covered in foliage, flowers, and fruit in a few weeks though .

I will take a picture of it later on, when the tall trellis is covered. The picture above shows one of the many Passion fruits still on the vine. The are the same color as a lime and about the same size. They are loaded with seeds, much like a pomegranate. I was up early this morning in the garden and noticed the Passion fruit on my way back in the house. I am so thankful to my friend Randy, who gave me the plant, when it was just a seedling three years ago. Thanks Randy!

Back in February I did a blog post with some pictures of last years beautiful blooms. It was cold and dreary at that time and "passion" was part of the LOVE theme of Valentine's week. This picture is my favorite and also is wall paper on my computer. The blooms are so pretty and plentiful, but they are not very large--only about 3-4" in diameter.

Passion

There's a lot of passion in the air, as Valentine's Day approaches. What better time for me to show off my beautiful passion flower vine that I have grown for the last two years. I took these three pictures on different days late last summer.

My friend Randy grew it from seed and gave me the inch tall seedling two years ago. I was especially happy to receive this species, because my Mother grew them during my childhood. I remember as a little boy being so fascinated by this flower.





















I am passionate about flowers; that is how I make my living. In my spare time at home, I also enjoy a little gardening. The passion flower (passiflora) is one of my favorite plants to grow.

Until I looked it up on Wikipedia (the title link), I never realized that the Passiflora are a genus of about 500 species of flowering plants, the namesakes of the family Passifloraceae.

They are mostly vines, with some being shrubs, and a few species being herbaceous.

Nine species of Passiflora are native to the USA, found from Ohio to the north, west to California and south to the Florida Keys. (for more information, click the title link).



















pas⋅sion (from Dictionary.com)

1. any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate.
2. strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.
3. strong sexual desire; lust.
4. an instance or experience of strong love or sexual desire.
5. a person toward whom one feels strong love or sexual desire.
6. a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything: a passion for music.
7. the object of such a fondness or desire: Accuracy became a passion with him.
8. an outburst of strong emotion or feeling: He suddenly broke into a passion of bitter words.
9. violent anger.
10. the state of being acted upon or affected by something external, esp. something alien to one's nature or one's customary behavior (contrasted with action ).
11. (often initial capital letter) Theology.
a. the sufferings of Christ on the cross or His sufferings subsequent to the Last Supper.
b. the narrative of Christ's sufferings as recorded in the Gospels.
12. Archaic. the sufferings of a martyr.

Origin: 1125–75; ME (<> late OE passiōn), special use of LL passiō suffering, submission, deriv. of L passus, ptp. of patī to suffer, submit; see -ion