Just beautiful. This is the first year I have any incarnata vines so I'll also be curious to see if there's any variation in the blooms.
Karyn

I Agree with karyn1 Beautiful!!!! Have you Pollinated it, if so with what?
Thanks jblaschke

Mine seem to vary in size and well as sometimes being much brighter than they are at other times. Your leaves look beautiful too. Mine are so fried from all the wind and dust we have been getting lately.

I love the leaves on my Texas Giant. They are *very* deep green, and the lobes are fatter and more rounded than the other incarnata I have. I can tell which plant suckers come from via the leaves--they're pretty distinctive.

Ninecrow, I've tried pollinating the first three blossoms with my Constance Eliott. Can't tell yet if it's taken yet or not. I did one cross with my regular caerulea (recreating the x colvillii hybrid) last year that has produced some vigorous seedlings, but it'll be quite a while before I know if the flowers are of interest. This incarnata produces fruit the size of goose eggs filled with lots of seed and pulp when crossed with another incarnata, but the large fruit are partially hollow when crossed with caerulea.

My other incarnata, of Georgia origin, has started blooming as well:

It's more of a "normal" incarnata in terms of flower size (2.5-3") and coloration. The fruit are the size of kiwifruit. Overall, it's more cold-hardy than my others and suckers more aggressively. It's pretty close to a type specimen for the species. The first couple of flowers have had deformed ovaries, but as soon as they normalize I'll be crossing it with the Texas.

My third is odd. I call it my "dwarf" incarnata because it doesn't grow aggressively, the leaves are small as are the flowers (under 2") and the fruit is the size of kumquats. The flowers are darker purple than the others, and it's very cold sensitive. I'm not sure of the origins of it, either. The others are flowering already but this one is only about 6" tall thus far. Last year I considered pulling it out because of those reasons, but now I'm seriously thinking it might be a good option for people who want an incarnata but don't have the room to grow one in anything but a container. I'll post a pic whenever it gets around to blooming. Maybe I'll take a leaf comparison pic as well to share...

jblaschke, I've heard that Constance Eliott is a better pollinater that the the normal blue caerulea, so hopefully you'll get some nice results... Or are you planing on eating them *Wink*

Interseting about your "dwarf" incarnata, Please let me know if you mange to set fruit on it
Thanks

All your blooms are beautiful but that "Texas Giant" is really spectacular.
Karyn

Ninecrow, the dwarf set fruit 2-3 times last year. The flowers are small and attractive, but almost all of them had styles/stigmas held upright, which is usually a sign for "pollen donor only." The only fruit that set came on the few flowers that had reflexed styles/stigmas. I'm thinking that either its age or smallish size prompted this quirk.

I don't know what the offspring would be like coming from seed. The Georgia is closer physically in size to the dwarf, so morphologically it's the better match to preserve the dwarf characteristics, but its aggressive growth wouldn't be suitable for a container plant. The Texas is more dignified in its growth and suckering, but really demands a lot of heat and light to hit its stride. In August, when everything else in my yard was staggering under the summer sun and lack of water, the Texas was growing like gangbusters. So a cross with that one wouldn't likely be suitable for cooler, lower light conditions...

The dwarf was given to me as a root cutting, but its behavior is closer to that of a seed-grown plant. It doesn't sucker very much, but there are a couple of small ones I'm planning to dig up and try to establish in pots for sale/trade. I wish I knew which region it came from, so I'd have a better idea of the climactic conditions it is adapted to.

Karyn, the "Texas giant" was the first passi I ever saw. It was 18 years or so ago and I was working on some land we'd recently bought out in the country when I ran across that bizarre flower in the top picture growing in the open field. I didn't know what it was, and picked the blossom to ask around about it. Of course, being a passi it shriveled up immediately. In the years that followed I saw the fruit hanging on the fence and wondered if they were some sort of wild cucumber-- never connected the fruit with the flowers I'd seen. It wasn't until my inlaws gave me a root cutting from their Incense five years ago that the light bulb went off and I realized what I'd been dealing with all those years ago.

I really do consider myself lucky with the native I have. I've never heard of an incarnata flower reaching the size this one does. It's every bit as big as my Incense's flowers, and almost as strongly scented.

By the by, I just traded for some unrooted coccinea cuttings. if, by some miracle, any survive I'm going to attempt to recreate the Lady Margaret cross using the Texas plant above. Imagine a Lady Margaret variant with 4" flowers...

jblaschke Thanks for the info...
Just got out my tape Messure and all I can say is Wow!!!!
Looking forward to seeing more of this "Texas giant" in all it's Glory
Thanks for sharing it with us
NC

Ninecrow, too bad it's such a hassle to ship live plant material overseas. I'd love to trade. But then again, from all I've heard, incarnata in general really, really dislikes the environs of the British isles, so I'm certain my Texas strain would sour on it quickly. I'd be happy to send you some seed, tho, maybe of the Texas/dwarf cross if I get some this year, or of the x colvillii recreation I'm working on (from what I hear, adding the caerulea genes to the mix mitigates whatever incarnatas hate about Britain).

If you really want to get some incarnata that should have a fighting chance of thriving in your climate, try to find someone in Ohio growing them outdoors and get some seed. Ohio winters are *very* cold and wet, so at the very least it'd be able to weather your better equipped for your environment than the more common southern varieties.

Thank You for thinking of me jblaschke

Think it's the Cold damp roots that Kill incarnata's here in England... Wondering if they would grow better in a Big pot, with Lots of Grit and Whatnot in the base....