> Back home, Passiflora incarnata is full of fruit now. It amazes me that > this > plant was cultivated in England before there were permanent European > settlements here in the State of Maryland. Parkinson, in 1629, called it > the Passiflora incarnata may have been cultivated in England before 1629, but it is very seldom grown here now. Neither Bean's 'Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles' nor the 'Hillier Manual of Trees & Shrubs', the two premier guides to woody plants grown in the UK, even give it a mention. John Vanderplank, in his monograph on the genus 'Passionflowers', says that its failure here may be due to a need for extreme drainage and nutrient-poor soils. This seems rather improbable and I am more inclined to ascribe its failure to an insufficiency of summer heat. The only species to be reliably successfully cultivated outdoors in the UK is P. caerulea from southern Brazil and Argentina, an area where several more or less hardy woody plants originate. John Grimshaw Dr John M. Grimshaw Sycamore Cottage Colesbourne Nr Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL53 9NP Tel. 01242 870567 COLESBOURNE PARK OPEN DAYS 2007 Easter Monday 9 April, Arboretum Weekend 15-16 September Gates open 1pm, last entry 4 pm website: http://www.colesbournegardens.org.uk/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim McKenney" <jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com> To: "'Pacific Bulb Society'" <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2007 3:28 PM Subject: Re: [pbs] Lycoris and Rain - A theory - 2 and OT Passiflora misc. > Lycoris squamigera is over for the year in my garden. Last weekend I was > traveling in western Virginia through some towns which were new to me, and > I > saw many gardens with thick clumps of Lycoris squamigera in bloom. When I > say clumps of bloom, I mean fifty or sixty blooming stalks crammed into > bundles about eighteen inches thick. Some were much bigger than that: one > mass seemed to be at least a yard across! From a distance, they look like > tufts of cotton candy in the garden. I wonder: how old are these? The > soils in that part of Virginia are generally more nearly neutral in pH > than > the acidic stuff we have here: I wonder, too, if that makes a difference. > > The plants I have in the garden here send up - very sparingly - single > bloom > stalks as a rule. > > The small town where I stayed in western Virginia closes down at dark. > It's > very quiet at night. The sky shows stars I've never noticed before. Sweet > autumn clematis and mimosa (Albizzia) were blooming throughout town: the > night air was sweet with these fragrances and others (including some not > so > sweet ones from the surrounding dairy farms). > > Back home, Passiflora incarnata is full of fruit now. It amazes me that > this > plant was cultivated in England before there were permanent European > settlements here in the State of Maryland. Parkinson, in 1629, called it > the > maraoc of Virginia, "the surpassing delight of all flowers". Take a look > here: > http://mcwort.blogspot.com/2007/07/… > > One of my neighbors is from South America, and I surprised him the other > day > by telling him I had Passiflora growing in my garden. Incidentally, he > used > the name passiflora, too, as if it were a vernacular name. It was a funny > experience because he was so incredulous: I took him over to the vines, he > skeptically looked at them; I plucked a fruit, broke it open, and as soon > as > I did and he saw the vesicles on the inside of the fruit, he lit up and > became very enthusiastic. We shared the pieces: they have a bit of juice > but > otherwise are rather dry, and they have a sort of very sour initial taste, > refreshingly sour like grapefruit (but not a grapefruit taste), followed > by > a vague citrus flavor. My neighbor told me that where he comes from they > make a drink from the pulp. We agreed that it would probably take about a > bushel of maypops to make a small glass of anything. I sent him home with > a > freshly dug piece of the vine. > > Does anyone know a good recipe for using the fruit of this plant? > > Passiflora incarnata grows very freely here, too freely. It generally > becomes a serious pest when not controlled. > > My plants are loaded with flowers now, too, and they scent the yard and > the > house. > > Passiflora lutea is not uncommon in some local woods. But it's so > inconspicuous: the flowers are tiny - about the size of a dime if that - > and > the fruits are only about a quarter or third of an inch in diameter. Very > few people seem to know about this plant. > > Jim McKenney > jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com > Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where asters are beginning > to > bloom. > > My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/ > > BLOG! http://mcwort.blogspot.com/ > > Webmaster Potomac Valley Chapter, NARGS > Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org/ > > Webmaster Potomac Lily Society http://www.potomaclilysociety.org/ > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.0/961 - Release Date: 19/08/2007 > 07:27 >