Angie, Did you plant the entire passion fruit or did you separate the seeds from inside the fruit? The 2 fruit i got from my vine are only about 1 centimeter in diameter. It seems that it would be easier to plant the entire fruit. Thanks Fern in Fort Myers

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 was biking the LA river trail towards Long Beach when I came across this wild passiflora. I was very struck by how many homeless people were encamped nearby and the area was full of birds, but there was no sign these fruit were being eaten. Until I got there. Now I'm thinking about harvesting some of the thousands of fruit that were going to waste there. Any recipes?

Have you ever tried Vine-X? That's supposed to be a good herbicide. Before you kill them off I'd love to get a couple rooted suckers from you. I can send you postage or if you are interested in a trade I have lots of plants available. Karyn Here is a link that might be useful: Vine-X