This has already been a great learning experience on this message board. Thank you..! We bought a Caerulea variety from a Home Depot two years ago. It made it through the summer last year and grew heartily into a large thick vine that covers a 14' portion of a 6' tall wall in our yard. It's on the East side of a N/S cement block wall. Thus, being Phoenix AZ... doesn't get the direct sunshine late in the day, but does get the heat through the block wall. It's not seeming to bother it at all. Regarding flowers, however... we only had three last year and each one only opened fully for about a 24 hour period. The second day they would open half-way and then died off slowly in about a week's time. I didn't get any fruit last year. I did no trimming over the winter. But this spring, I trimmed back the new growth to maintain the vine to it's current size. The vine has developed tons of flower buds and about eight of them have opened up so far. They still only open up fully for about a 24 hour period. We have few bees here as well so I'll be hand pollinating. But is it common for the flowers to only be open for about a day or so? Thank you in advance for your assistance and wisdom. Michael and Linda Kavanaugh "kavalinda"

i don't know about this with passions, (i am 'grasshopper' here, and they are teaching me ) but yes, i root many plants and they absolutely flower in order to survive. but from reading through these board exchanges, i get the impression that many passionflowers (from seed) do not flower. I hope the more experienced see your post and can better answer your question. i would like to know this as well:) Nicci

For whatever reason Yamagami's (in Cupertino, but not far from Sunnyvale)seems to carry a lot of P. edulis fairly late (August or September). Perhaps that's when it's easiest to get plants with flowers, buds, and fruit from the wholesalers. You should check with them and see when they will have NG and Black Knight, and make sure they special order them if they don't plan on selling them. I remember them selling both of those varieties in 1 gallon pots, as well as a couple others such as Red Rover and Frederick. Maybe Frederick was 5 gallons (?). A 5 gallon plant will probably run $40 or $50, a 1 gallon $20, so this can make a difference, particularly if you want more than one variety. Sometimes they have big sales in September where one can get 60% off. Nancy Garrison is a regular speaker there, so it makes sense that they carry that variety. It's worth getting on Yamagami's mailing list if you plan on buying things there. I've never seen Frosty anywhere. If you are trying to track down a variety possibly someone who posts on the Cloudforest Cafe would have something. I think there are more CRFG (California Rare Fruit Growers) members who post there. I have not seen that much in the way of P. edulis elsewhere in the South Bay. Frederick and I think an unnamed variety at Roger Reynold's in Menlo Park. That's about it. Even fruit is hard to find for sale--I've just seen it at Cosentino's (now gone) and the Milk Pail (Mountain View). Here is a link that might be useful: Yamagami's contact form

I had miraculous results with lillikoi (P. edulis flavicarpa) seeds my friend gave me from Hawaii that were a year and a half old and stored encased in some masking tape :) I scraped one long edge of each seed with fine sandpaper (220 or so) several times until I felt like I had almost scraped all the way through the outer shell. I then soaked the seeds in a small amount (1.5 tablespoons or so of each ) of fresh squeezed orange juice and strong black tea. I placed them in a small plastic souffle cup on a heat mat in a sunny window where the liquid proceeded to evaporate. After about 24 hours the liquid had been reduced to almost a syrup, and I added enough water to get it back to the original amount. After 48 hours I planted the seeds about a half inch deep in half miracle grow seedling starter mix and half perlite, and encased the container in a large bag with the top slightly open to trap the humidity, and placed this on the heat mat in the sunny window. Because it was so hot over the week (sunny, humid and around high of 95F) I checked the soil temp and it was around 97F so I stopped putting the heat mat on during the day, and only put it on at night. Then over the weekend, I went on vacation and accidentally left the heat mat on during the day. When I came back from vacation, one of the seeds (a year and a half old!) had already sprouted.... this was only 7 days after planting!!! Within 3 days, two more had sprouted. I am not sure if these results were because flavicarpa is particularly hardy and vigorous, if there is something about storing them stuck between masking tape that preserves viability, or if it was the pre-treatment effects and warm soil that made them so viable, but whatever the factor, I am pretty pleased with this ultra fast germination and wanted to share in case anyone else can use this info :)