Hello,

I have to ask first, was it a yellow fruit or a purple fruit? I could be P. edulis v. edulis or P. edulis v. flavicarpa. Then beyond that, there are many different cultivars which would be nearly impossible for you find out having bought a fruit.

The most important first question is still: Purple or Yellow? The cultural requirements are drastically different. Though some hybrids between the two are in cultivation as well, generally the fruit color should tell us what we need to help a little.

There is also a good chance you are just too darn hot where you are. You may not be able to get fruit from these vines. Your fruit may have been imported, you know...

There are some recommendable hybrids and cultivars out there for you, as I'm sure someone else will tell you. I am still most interested in the fruit color before I divulge more.

Happy gardening,
Eric Wortman

I have a few edulis varieties grown from seed and none have bloomed the first year. Some took as long as 3 seasons to flower but I'm in zone 7 and have to cut them back to get them inside over the winter. If you are in a zone where they can stay out year round you'd likely get blooms earlier. I've also heard that sometimes an edulis from seed never sets buds.

the fruit was purple and tasted fantastic.

in case i can't grow/get fruit from this vine is there another you could recommend - (something i can actually find). i bought my first vine last year from ebay and it was not the "good eating" kind, even though so advertised...

thx :)

I agree with Karyn. As far as I understand, it would be unusual to get flowers/fruit in less than a year. So just be patient.

If you don't want to wait, I'm sure if you call around some nursery in L.A. should carry plants, probably with flowers/fruit. If you don't want to buy a plant, I can give you some unrooted cuttings of P. edulis 'Nancy Garrison'. I bought a fairly small rooted cutting last summer and now I have a plant with more than 50 fruits on it. If you started a cutting now I think there's a good chance it would bloom/fruit next year, especially with your warmer winters. Cuttings are reasonably easy to root with bottom heat in my experience.

I just remembered I can also take a cutting or two of my smaller P. edulis 'Frederick'. That one is supposed to have larger but less sweet fruit. That plant was also bought as a small cutting last year and bloomed a couple times last year but I didn't get decent sized fruit. It was set back this year by frost and snails, so no fruit yet.

I bought my plants from Grassy Knoll. I would recommend them highly.

first of all ..i'm speechless. what an amazing community i have joined....thank you for your offer of cuttings and the advice.

maybe i'll throw another question in the mix while i have your ear. since they're doing so well, i'll let my vines grow in their pots. should i expect them to die back in the winter ? obviously i can't bring them in since they're grown so long and attached themselves to everything they can reach ...

thx :)

I cut my passies way back in the winter, even the ones that stay in the greenhouse. I allow the cold hardy varieties to go dormant (in ground and container grown) but keep the tropical and sub-tropical varieties growing year round. This year I'm taking cuttings from my hardy vines because I lost all of them over the winter. They've been coming back for several years and in theory should be perfectly fine in zone 7 but last winter was so brutal that it killed them off.

Unless it drops below about 27 or 28, I don't think you have to worry about P. edulis dying back. I would imagine if you're in L.A. you're probably OK.

I, too, have a Passiflora Edulis (purple fruited variety imported from New Zealand). I is on it's third season and hasn't bloomed. The plant is HUGE. I love it a lot but man I'm ready to eat some fruit!

I remembered a couple other things regarding fruiting and cuttings.

I rooted a cutting of my P. edulis 'Nancy Garrison' in November or December. It's in a 6 inch pot and isn't huge, but it's ready to go in the ground (somewhere, not here...). It has at least one bud that it looks like it will keep.

A week ago I saw plants (derived from rooted cuttings) of P. edulis 'Frederick. They had buds/flowers and several fruit each. These were not large plants. Of course the wholesaler may have tricks to get those to bloom.

Perhaps it would be good to find someone who knows a wholesaler. I think I may know someone. I'll ask, and let you know, but they are not quick to respond to emails, so it may take some time.

Eric