I adore the Gulf Fritillary butterflies! My neighbors had 2 passion vines on the wood lattice topper on our shared wall. Both ornamental, no fruit. One was the classic purple flower and the other was a red flower that was more bell shaped and produced nectar that meant it was always full of ants. Well we always saw butterflies flitting about but never caterpillars. I think the ants ate them as soon as they hatched. Well the lattice was rotten and new neighbors moved in who sweetly asked if it was OK to remove it. We were more than happy since we wanted to replace wood with steel topper. But then I seriously missed the butterflies. I saw zero for a year. I missed them so much I planted a passion vine on the shared wall of the other neighbors. Just the purple flower that doesn’t have nectar so it won’t attract ants. Well for the first time in a year, I see not only butterflies but larva! I plan to cut it back to the “trunk“ each winter so it doesn’t get out of control this time. This vine is incredibly vigorous and could completely cover a carport if you let it. I don’t care about the flowers which are always there or the look of the vine, which is always green with chew holes, but my heart sings when every day I sit in the patio surrounded by the fluttering of beautiful amber butterflies. Usually 2 or 3 but sometimes 7 or 8 as I also provide nectar flowers for them. For me, the whole point of the vine is the butterflies.

I've never been successful at rooting maypops, Sue, but I have been successful at growing them from seeds. I've got two P. incarnata 'alba' (white flowering form) seedlings in my rooting cage right now that I'll be planting out pretty soon. The seeds are odd. I plant mine fresh with the natural stuff surrounding the actual seed intact - I can't remember what that stuff is, but it's the sour stuff that you can make juice from if you have the patience to squeeze it out. A lot of people say take it off and soak the seeds in orange juice, but why? The natural juice is acidic. Some will come up right away, and others won't come up until next year, but the germination rate is always low for me. Still, it only takes a few to wind up with a whole field of it - you saw for yourself how it spreads from underground roots. There's probably some way you could start them from the underground root itself - maybe somebody else will know. Sherry

@Shad Burns I'm curious, where did you buy your seeds or vines from? I grow them too, and I'm always curious about the source of passiflora incarnata, when grown successfully in zone 5/6. Mine were selected from the wild, in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. I'm always interested in hardier strains. @Helene Albert I am in zone 5b, Chicago suburbs, literally a stone throws away from you. I grow passiflora incarnata successfully. I have fruit that's ready to harvest at end of August continuing through to October. It's truly a may sprouting perennial for me. If anyone is growing passiflora incarnata in zone 4/5/6a, please send me a message through Houzz by clicking my profile. I cannot send messages by default to most people, because messages are not enabled by default in Houzz until you go to your profile and enable them under "advanced settings." You should be able to send to me, however. I collect hardy passiflora incarnata. There is some genetic variation. Even the white version of P. incarnata aren't the same, with at least 5+ different strains floating around.

Those darker nodes are actual sugar like glands, nectaries, that attract the ants to protect the plant from the likes of caterpillars. From what I've read, ants are usually not a problem of any sort, unless you stick your nose in a bloom and it is covered with them, like I did last week, LOL. The aphids that hit buds usually burrow inside the buds and you don't see them however I haven't personally experience that problem with passiflora only hibiscus. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1938594?uid=3739600&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103794922801