There's nothing wrong with dried seeds as long as they've been properly stored and aren't really old. I've planted passie seeds that are a few years old and have had decent germination rates. You'd definitely prefer seeds that are under a year old but many remain viable for quite a while. I've found P. mollissima to be one of the easier seeds to germinate. Most of my seed grown passion vines were started with seeds that had been stored for at least a while. I just soak them in a mild acidic solution for a day prior to sowing.

I've never attempted to root cuttings of mollissima but most passies aren't terribly difficult to root.

If you do a search in this forum you should be able to find some nurseries. There was a thread a month or so ago that listed several nurseries in the SF Bay area. Good luck.

I'll probably have to try dried seeds. I heard they can take a long time, months and even up to a year. I heard the fresh seeds sprout within a week and have a much better germination rate. On EBay there are some AUSSIE sellers who list the seeds as "Fresh". I assume they mean freshly dried. I'll probably give those a go.

Hey there,

Since you are so close, you should stop by the Strybing sale this Saturday 10-1. They occasionally have this one for sale, and even if not, they will still likely have some Tacsonia hybrids.

At the last Strybing sale I think they had the white "P. mollissima" (white P. tarminiana) for sale. However if I remember correctly the name was something that was not immediately recognizable as P. tarminiana/mollissima. It's best to ask one of the guys working there if you are interested in this species. You might also be able to get a hybrid of that species. I don't think I've ever seen the pink colored P. mollissima/tarminiana (or the other plant called P. mollissima, P. tripartita var. mollissima) for sale there.

They always have Tacsonias of some sort for sale, though. For any of these, it's best to be there when the sale starts at 10:00 A.M. to make sure you get a good selection.

I thought I'd add that in my limited experience P. mollissima/tarminiana fruit does not taste very good. I would not plant it if your goal is edible fruit. There are other Tacsonias that are much better, although I've only tasted a few. If you are in a hot part of San Jose you may be limited somewhat (and need to avoid afternoon sun for many species/hybrids).

If you are curious what the most suitable/best tasting fruiting Tacsonia for San Jose is, I'd have to guess. Maybe a couple other people here would have some ideas. Some plants are more heat tolerant, some self fertile, some bloom and fruit more readily... Also, some species/hybrids are easier to find than others.

Thanks Eristal and Mark,

I am looking for one of the better tasting ones. I've heard they don't like heat as much and was going to put them in a space I've noticed that gets no afternoon sun (in summer at least, can't speak for rest of year).

Self-fertile, edible/tasty, easy to find in Bay Area. That is what I'm hoping for. I've heard the mollissima doesn't taste as good in San Fran because it's not hot enough there. I'll take your best guess by the way! This is all an experiment for me. Thanks for the input.

I think P. mollissima/tarminiana can take more heat than most other Tacsonias, and probably more sun as well.

The only one that I fruited in Sunnyvale is P. tripartita var. mollissima, which was only marginally better than P. tarminiana. I was disappointed because I had heard that many strains are significantly better. Actually I did fruit P. x exoniensis as well. This plant is not self-fertile, and the fruits (pollinated with P. loefgrenii of all things) were pretty tiny--smaller than they "should" be. P. x exoniensis was better than either "mollissima" fruit I tried.

The P. "mollissima"/tarminiana was grown in Berkeley, so it would have been a few degrees warmer than S.F. I had not heard extra heat makes of a difference. The fruit was really pretty bad.

The other two I've tried are P. 'Mission Dolores'(twice) and a plant tentatively identified as P. cumbalensis. The second was again better than either P. "mollissima" and was from Berkeley. Both P. 'Mission Dolores' were grown in San Francisco, and one that was a summer fruit was great. A winter one had few seeds and little juice and was pretty bad.

Two Tacsonias that have reputations as having among the best fruit are P. pinnatistipula and P. antioquiensis. I have grown P. antioquiensis but not long enough to get it to bloom. It may be too hot in San Jose. I have not grown P. pinnatistipula and I don't know how well it would do there. I don't know if it is self-fertile either.

I suspect that P. "mollissima"/tarminiana would be among the easiest to grow there, so if you can find a tasty strain maybe it's worth it. Also P. x exoniensis is a great plant and if you have room for two you could use tarminiana to cross pollinate. P. 'Mission Dolores' bloomed for me in Sunnyvale but fried when we hit 104 F. I'm not sure about P. antioquiensis in terms of heat tolerance, but it might be worth a try. P. 'Mission Dolores' might be a better bet. And if you can find P. pinnatistipula and find out about the pollination, it might be worth a shot.

Of all the above P. x exoniensis and P. 'Mission Dolores' are probably the easiest to find in the Bay Area. Strybing and Annie's Annuals sell both. Mail order, Grassy Knoll also sells both. Strybing and Grassy Knoll sell P. antioquiensis. I know UC Botanical Garden has sold P. pinnatistipula in the past.

The advantage of a Strybing plant is that they are "big" plants in 1 gallon pots, sometimes in bud/bloom depending on the species/hybrid.

I know someone in Palo Alto who has both P. 'Mission Dolores' and P. exoniensis in the ground and they are doing well. Grown from small cuttings, they are starting to grow their first (non-viable) buds. Actually she grew P. mollissima in the past. I can ask her what they tasted like.

P. 'Mission Dolores' is self fertile and I would guess it can be used to pollinate P. exoniensis, but I haven't tried. One person tells me MD fruit form fine on their own; another...

Went to the sale today. Picked up a P. Mission Dolores x P. Antioquiensis.

I met the volunteer who grew it from seed. He said both parents are self-fertile but this cross is unknown for now. I guess I'll find out. Maybe I posts pics of it when it flowers. For now here are some picture I took off the Passiflora ground around the gardens. Thanks again all for the input.

Sounds like a nice cross. Strybing has such impressive passifloras. I love the tasconias but they don't love my summers. My antioquensis plants which had done the best of the tasconias I've grown finally gave up and just kind of melted. Triple digit temps have been the norm here this summer.

I love those cobea scandens vines. I think the passie in the pic after the cobeas is an actinia. No idea what the passie in the last pic is but it's pretty.

I was also at the sale. I had a discussion with a couple people there about edible and tasty fruits and I was assured that there are strains of both P. tarminiana and P. tripartita var. mollissima that are worth eating.

One person had heard a report that P. pinnatistipula was pretty bad. I had seen it compared elsewhere to P. ligularis, considered by many the best tasting passionfruit. So maybe a lot of this is strain dependent, or varies with the weather/time of the year. Or maybe some people just taste things differently.

They also had P. actinia for sale in bud/bloom with at least one fruit. Nobody seemed to know for sure whether that was a good tasting species, although I've seen that claimed before.

By the way, Strybing just opened a plant shop where one can buy plants every day. It is near the main gate. They don't have the capacity for nearly as many plants as at a sale, but they did have some nice things there today. I don't remember seeing any Passiflora, but I think I heard that they had P. membranacea for sale last week (also at today's monthly sale).

Karyn, that is indeed P. actinia growing up and over a tree en masse, and the last one is P. x violacaea 'Eynsford Gem' growing on a chain link fence outside the side gate. They had a dozen of them planted last year, but now there is only one left. I don't really think they get hot enough to grow this one well. The Tacsonia picture is one of the many hybrids that the rats have helped create, probably heavily P. mixta, with a little P. tripartita mixed in... who knows for sure?

...and it's hard to tell in the picture just how gorgeous that canopy of Tacsonias and Cobea all mixed together for dozens of feet in all directions is. Breathtaking.