Hi, Friend! my Parritae is hanging on, but my white cutting died. I have grown P. edulus from seed to bloom - it bloomed at a young age and lots of blooms. Of course, P. incarnata freely reseeds and blooms quickly. I can't speak about the others.

Hi kayjones, do you mean your P. parritae x antioquiensis?

Sorry to hear about the 'Constance Eliot'.

The P. 'Blue Horizon' flowers look great. My 'Blue Horizon' is growing fast, and I get wait to see the flowers up close.

Hey there,

I had a really long response typed a few days ago, but left the computer for a few minutes too long, and it all disappeared. So... here's an abridged version:

We have thousands of fruits that show up on their own every year. Most are on plants that have inedible or unappetizing fruit. Every week or so during the growing season we go around the yard with a bucket to collect the fruits and throw them away before they drop and we get more "volunteers".

Obviously, we are not interested in keeping and growing seeds with unknown paternal parentage, with some exceptions. Any new Passiflora for us, I like to find out if it will create a fruit on it's own. Will it create seeds to begin with, and if so, to what degree of ease will it fruit. It is interesting to me to study what happens without my intervention, since I will in most cases be pollinating by hand anything of interest. This is of course only truly of interest to me if there is data that the specific plant is difficult to hybridize, or if there is no information either way.

My interest grows exponentially if the Passiflora in question has never had a registered cross. Our first step in analysis is to find out what else was blooming the same day. If there was nothing that is potentially likely to pollinate, especially without human assistance, I would likely not carry the fruit all the way to maturity. For instance, if my fruiting plant is Passiflora parritae, and the only other Passifloras blooming at the same time were all Stipulata supersection, I would make a logical conclusion that the fruit is either "selfed" or empty. If I am interested in growing or trading seeds of that said plant, I could choose to continue to grow out the fruit. Otherwise, into the compost bin it goes with all it's friends.

On the other hand, if Passiflora loefgenii has a fruit on it, and the only known hybrid with her as the maternal is P. 'Connor Cailean' with P. caerulea, I would have to take pause. Though I may have P. caerulea open at the same time, I also may have a dozen P. caerulea hybrids and closely related species blooming as well. This would make me very interested in finding out what the "children" look like. Though it would drive me crazy to register a hybrid that had unknown paternal parentage, if it was interesting enough, it may be worth it. Or at the very least, it would open up the possibilities for new attempts to duplicate the hybrid in a closed environment.

Another interesting possibility would be if the Passiflora with the fruit was one that was known to not form seeds generally ever. For instance, I believe P. 'Sapphire' is this way. I would certainly let it mature and hope for seeds to grow out.

As far as your specific plants, my thoughts are that the P. 'Mission Delores' seeds are worth growing. It, it's parents, and any potential hybrids therein are not easy plants for people to get even if they live in the bay area. You have the opportunity to help distribute these amazing plants. You could either grow them out to see what they turn out like before distribution, or in my opinion a better option is to send out the seeds with the disclaimer that you don't know for sure the pollen donor. The chance for having anything in this realm of color, size, and beauty would likely overrule the matter of the unknown parent.

The P. 'Blue Horizon', if I'm not mistaken, has not had the parentage disclosed. However, I think it is fairly accepted that P. caerulea, (perhaps CE) and P. amethystina are the primary parents, though perhaps recrossed multiple times. If this is the case, it would be tough for me to decide whether or not it is self-fertile. P. caerulea, I believe to definitely not be. P. amethystina, I believe definitely is. Who knows which parent it took after more? If I had to take a guess, I would say that your fruits were formed with the pollen of a different Passiflora, though I don't know what else you may have had open. If you have two fruits, and one is smaller, open it up. Find out if there are seeds forming or not. If so, and there is a chance of the hybrid to be interesting based on what else was open the same day, I would keep it to maturity and grow it.

Wheh! That was a lot of iterating what I already typed. I hate when that happens.

Anyway, I hope that helped a little.
Eric

Thanks Eric,

I should have a few of the Mission Dolores seeds to spare--I should be able give 5-10 to a few people for postage.

I would give preference to those with appropriate conditions--either the right climate or a cool greenhouse. The plants will likely die if temps are regularly above 90, particularly with warm (60+) nights. They will also die if it gets significantly below freezing.

Hi Mark4321, I would love to try growing Mission dolores
from seeds.If you can spare some seeds , i also live in bay area,the weather condition must be suitable for this passion.
Please, LMK. Thanks
Joy

Hi Joy,

I'll bring you a couple rooted cuttings of 'Mission Dolores'. Do you want seeds as well? The plants from seeds will be different--it's not clear how.

A really good one for the Bay Area is P. x exoniensis, which is P. antioquiensis x mollissima, so it's related to Mission Dolores, which is parritae x antioquiensis. Mine bloomed over the entire summer, even through the worst heat. There are pictures at the end of this thread, right after we hit 102:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/passiflora/msg0415341612851.html

See also:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/passiflora/msg0516454223011.html

P. x exoniensis has smaller flowers than Mission Dolores and a shorter penduncle: 3-6 inches, but is still pretty spectacular. Plus it blooms in a 1 gallon pot. It isn't self fertile, but you can cross pollinate with mollissima. I'm not sure what my supply of rooted cuttings is like--if I'm low I'll start some and bring them with me.

See you soon.

I know it's sacrilegious to even suggest because of the rarity of the strains, but have any of you tasted the fruit of parritae or Mission Dolores (without destroying the seeds of course)?

Hi Randy,
I would love to have some cuttings from you.
The flower so beautiful, is it Mission Dolores ?
I like bright pink color.
Thanks Randy, can not wait to meet you.
Joy

Hi Joy,

The flower above is P. 'Mission Dolores'. I don't think I've ever seen it next to P. x exoniensis, but I'm sure exoniensis is the brighter pink--I don't think you can get any brighter. I'll bring you a nice plant.

P. exoniensis:

{{gwi:66005}}

And below is a link to 'Mission Dolores' for comparison. exoniensis is "only" about 5 inches across. They're both incredible plants in different ways.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1133272}}

pshawn,

Sorry, I guess I missed your post, possibly because I was amused that Joy (fluffybonbon) didn't know my GW username and we were already getting together in 2 days.

I guess I forgot to mention it here, but I have tasted Mission Dolores--it's pretty good. This was the same fruit as above. I would describe the taste as kind of orange-y, except not very tart. I don't know how it compares to either of the parents, as I haven't tasted them. P. antioquiensis is supposed to be one of the best.

I don't know anyone who has tasted P. parritae, although surely someone has.

Nobody wants any 'Mission Dolores' seeds? Should I toss them?

I don't know anything about the genetics of color determination in these guys, but if it's a single gene and red is dominant and orange is recessive, then 'Mission Dolores' is heterozygous and some of the seedlings could have orange flowers. Any guesses? Probably it's more complex than this, but who knows what might pop up.

Or maybe the progeny would have flowers with a shape like that of P. parritae, but red/pink. Or maybe they would look much like P. parritae, color and shape, except on 2 foot peduncles on a more robust plant that blooms next fall? Who knows.

I think I'm convincing myself to plant some, even though I have no room.

Mark, don't throw them out. I'll give a try at germinating some. Email sent.

I'm in the zone 9a but, hey, I'm willing to try them.
LMK thanks.

I am a zone 5 but have a green house room, and would love to give them a try, if they are still available.

I have native seeds in pods from SE TN, foothills of the smokies. Collected them in fall, they wintered over outdoors.
Would any of you all know what the name of the native in this area is?
We had heavy cold snap this year. Wondering if I should even try to root them? And is there anything special that has to be done to start them? I do see that the seeds are hard shelled.?

Mark, the seeds of Mission Delores I received looks like 'Blue H'. They are very aggressive; found lots of them sprouting up everywhere. I have pulled some up and placed in containers. They are also fruiting.
Could the seeds be "Blue Horizon"?

Mark, here's a photo of the plant.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Those flowers and leaves look a lot like P. caerulea.

The seeds that produced that flower and those leaves cannot be from me. I have not grown P. caerulea in more than 10 years. I did grow P. 'Blue Horizon' (a P. caerulea hybrid with very different leaves), which formed a couple fruits; however I never harvested them. A year or more (?) before I did have some P. caerulea seeds from a fruit I found growing locally, however I never cleaned those seeds but put them in the fridge where they got moldy. So there is zero chance I ever had cleaned P. caerulea seeds (or even seeds of any P. caerulea hybrid).

Do you reuse pots or potting soil? They could certainly sprout a year later from old soil. Did you get any seeds ever of P. caerulea or other Passifloras from anyone else?

Mark, I planted several seeds from your package. I have 3 huge plants now and they all have flowered and all look like the photo I took. No, I didn't plant any other seeds but I do have a maypop in the ground and has not flowered this year.
I did find a pack from trader with "passion flower" blue pasionaria blue written on it. So maybe the mystery is solved.
I still have seeds of Mission D, so I will try again.
Rats, I was so sure that they were Mission D since I marked them as such...I guess they never came up.
Did you sow your seeds of Delores?

piksi hk - For my info, how long did it take for the seeds you planted to have flowers & fruits? Reason for my asking is my vines, grown from seeds, are now quite thick & climbing up the trellis, but no flowers (yet). Thanks.

Smallfern,

I started the seeds last year in winter/spring. The two in ground are flowering profusely now, and these are huge.

Hey Mark, how many fruits did you get from the P. 'Blue Horizon' vine? Also, how old is the vine and where did you get it from?

When it comes to seeds, I always say "why not?". Like I mentioned in another one of your posts, I have a 12 "Frederick" passion seedlings that are growing a little slow comepare to my vine that was grown from cuttings. That is my main cosern but, if my seedlings und up having any fruit or flowers, that will be good enough for me. Who knows, they might even produce good fruit!

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

I think I got 2 fruits of the 'Blue Horizon'. The seeds were not used for anything. The plant I believe was in its second year. It declined severely after that, possibly due to mites (?). I got the plant at Annie's Annuals.

As far as I'm aware nobody seems to know exactly what the P. edulis 'Frederick' hybrid is, although it sounds like it is some sort of complex hybrid of P. edulis f. edulis and P. edulis flavicarpa. Good luck with the seedlings--it sounds like you have a good shot at getting good fruit from that.

It does take a tremendous amount of space, effort and time to raise a bunch of P. edulis seedlings. Why not try another fruit producing species/hybrid?

I moved and my Passiflora collection is small at the moment, with nothing that most people would eat by choice. I would offer, but I don't have anything. I've mentioned it before, but I found it strange and sad that many people treat Passiflora cuttings like gold when it comes to giving them to others, yet at the same time put a ton of cuttings in the compost pile or trash. I really don't get it.

I'm sorry to hear about your 'Blue Horizon' vine. Thanks for answering my questions. I'm also growing a few different passies such as P.mollissima. There're others which I'm still working on trying to identify. where I live, people treat there cuttings as their own kin. Lol.

Thanks again, Daniel

Thanks for the beautiful post they are such wonderful looking plants. I only tried to raise one once and my dog dug it up and let it die. Have never seen the seeds for sale anywhere at least in the stores.