Hello Rigo,

I find your situation interesting.

The cat issues other people may be better at answering, as the cats in my neighborhood pay my P. 'Incense' no attention at all. I think the only advice I could give you about that would be to grow it up a support that they can't easily reach. My next thought, though, is are you sure this is indeed P. 'Incense', and not P. incarnata? I had an incarnata cutting rooting in my house, and my cat loved to eat it, and I have heard from a couple of other people that cats like incarnata, probably because of the light sedative effect.

Now, my next thought is again, "Are you sure that this is P. 'Incense'"? I live in Vacaville, California, where we get over a dozen days every year over 100 degrees, and many dozens over 90. It is supposed to reach 97 today according to Weather.com. My Incense is in full day, harsh sun, with no shade except for early morning. It is on a chain link fence, so all sides of it gets full sun. It does not wilt or show any other signs of heat issues, EVER. I wish I could say that about all my Passifloras...

P. 'Incense' has some cousins: P. 'Inspiration' and P. 'Temptation' and P. 'Blue Eyed Susan'. All three of these we were given earlier this year. I put the small new plants right in full sun. For the first couple of weeks, they did go through some adjustment stress, for they came from a climate with much less dry heat. Now, a month or so later, they are growing strong and producing flower buds, with no intimidation from the sun.

I am at a loss of what you could do other than quit trying so hard. In the last 9 years that we have had the P. 'Incense', I think it has been fertilized less than 10 times. If it is having severe troubles, and stunted because of feline abuse and other events, I would suggest replacing the plant with a new one, in more sun if possible. Another thought is that for your winters, perhaps a P. caerulea or P. incarnata may be better options for you.

I wish you luck.

Eric

Eric I think he means cats as in caterpillars. As long as you have an established healthy vine it should recover from the caterpillars, even if they defoliate it. We had a terrible winter last year and my incense that had been growing for years didn't come back and my incarnata barely made it. Did you have an unusually severe winter? If so maybe it's struggling to recover and might suffer from the cats. You might want to dig up a couple shoots with roots and let them grow in a container over the winter just in case your vine doesn't survive.

I, too, had problems with Incense. The first two I bought (in succession - at the high dollar nursery here) never really did well and finally petered out the second year. This has been several years ago. At the time, the forum said there was some kind of virus that some Incense had.

I have one now that is way over the top in production. I bought it marked down at Lowe's without a label three years ago. I just figured out recently that it's Incense. It covers a 30 ft. expanse of fence, sends up suckers like crazy (almost a pest) and blooms profusely.

You may have one that has that virus.

bkay

Eric ~ LOL, Karyn is right I was talking about caterpillars.Last winter was pretty ruff and I am going to look into rooting a few of the suckers over the winter as Karyn has instructed,also my P.Incense is growing on a trellis and a chin link fence that was covered the previous year and was very beautiful.Thanks to everyone for the information shared with me and if any others have any other tips please feel free to share them with me.
TIA

Rigo

Okay, I'm laughing my butt off. We don't have those kind of "cats" here, so it never even crosses my mind. That's too funny...

Eric

I forgot to mention, I have mine in full sun. That might help you as well.

bkay