Jane, a photo would be helpful or description, LOL. Gulf fritilliaries like their host plants to be in full sun, zebra longwing prefers shaded plants. Many passiflora won't bloom as well in full shade but many need some shade from our strong sun. Caterpillars will eat your plant and then hatch on it, so expect damage. The only plant that won't be eaten by caterpillars in Florida that I'm aware of is passiflora vitifolia.

I was going to suggest either full sun or morning sun, for better blooming also. But the butterflies don't care, they just want the leaves, so if that is your concern for the butterflies also, then shade would be tolerable for it.

So although butterflies will come by, you will also have to contend with the caterpillars, in case you don't really like looking at them.

I have found that early in the plant's growth, it might be helpful to remove some caterpillars doing damage, but as the season goes on and the plant gets bigger, it should grow faster than what the caterpillars can do to it (that is, unless you just get really lucky and have a ton of caterpillars)

If you let it make runners, then it's possible that the damage is spread around to different growing plants and then in that case, it's OK to let the caterpillars have a go at it at any stage.

Jane - you probably have these - what we call passion butterflies. Be careful - bc they can dessimate an entire young vine before it established itself. My mother (Cape Coral) lost about 5 young vines. You have to watch the caterpillars and remove for about a year. After that, the vine should be able to hane their feeding - but they will kill it quickly if you aren't careful!

i had a passion vine in my backyard and we ended up with gulf Frittilarys in it. the vine was well established by the time the butterflies arrived, so the damage they did, didn't hurt the plant at all. by the second year, we had our own personal butterfly hatchery. you could find the eggs all the way to newly hatched butterflies everywhere. and everyday during hte season maybe mid morning all the butterflies would gather and fly around our backyard. it was great being able to sit out there and pick up butterflies and caterpillars.

i had received 2 rooted cuttings last spring.
(Incarnata - Maypop)
by fall it was huge and producing fruit.
i liked seeing the Frittilarys now and then, until i saw the damage.
not much at first, big vine, no problem...

I started going out every morning picking them off, but i couldnt keep up.
By the end of fall, it was covered in baby caterpillars, and the damage was extensive.
the cold weather finished it off.
i thought they would come back,
but we had a very cold/WET winter.
i guess root-rot finished them.

I do caution about very young passion plants and the crowd of caterpillars. While many do like the caterpillars and eventual butterflies, they can certain cause harm to a young passion vine.

However, please keep watering your container or area where you planted the vine. It may still come back, just taking a little longer because of not having stored enough energy last fall. It may also come up in some other area where you didn't expect it to, since it sent out its root system.