Hello,
Sorry if this question has been asked before.
We have a passion flower at the end of our garden on a south facing wall. It
has been there for a couple of years. Until recently it was growing on a 10
foot long trellis. As it was getting quite overgrown we decided to install
some wiring on the wall in order for it to grow further out. However, the
passion flower appears to have dried out slightly and is looking slightly
withered. Is this normal? I thought the reason may be that the plant is
getting more air circulating around it. Any comments would be appreciated.

Victor

"Victor West" wrote in message
...
Hello,
Sorry if this question has been asked before.
We have a passion flower at the end of our garden on a south facing
wall. It
has been there for a couple of years. Until recently it was growing
on a 10
foot long trellis. As it was getting quite overgrown we decided to
install
some wiring on the wall in order for it to grow further out.
However, the
passion flower appears to have dried out slightly and is looking
slightly
withered. Is this normal? I thought the reason may be that the plant
is
getting more air circulating around it. Any comments would be
appreciated.

Victor

The top growth has probably been caught by frost.

Test to see if the plant is still alive by carefully scraping the stem
near the roots with your thumbnail. If its green its alive - brown
means its probably dead :~(

If its still alive, wait a bit and then prune out the dead top growth.

Jenny

In article ,
JennyC wrote:
"Victor West" wrote in message
...

We have a passion flower at the end of our garden on a south facing
wall. It
has been there for a couple of years. Until recently it was growing
on a 10
foot long trellis. As it was getting quite overgrown we decided to
install
some wiring on the wall in order for it to grow further out.
However, the
passion flower appears to have dried out slightly and is looking
slightly
withered. Is this normal? I thought the reason may be that the plant
is
getting more air circulating around it. Any comments would be
appreciated.

The top growth has probably been caught by frost.

Test to see if the plant is still alive by carefully scraping the stem
near the roots with your thumbnail. If its green its alive - brown
means its probably dead :~(

If its still alive, wait a bit and then prune out the dead top growth.

Mine is similar. Most passion flowers are severely tropical, and
will not survive either frost or being cut back hard. P. caerulea
is the only one that can take most UK winters (the two even hardier,
herbaceous ones, P. lutea and P. incarnata, can't take the wet).
P. caerulea will also grow herbaceously when established.

So the key is not to do ANYTHING until the weather warms up. If it
reshoots, do what Jenny says. If it doesn't, cut it back to the
ground and it will probably resprout from its roots. But it may well
not do so until high summer.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Xref: news7 uk.rec.gardening:132067

My passionflower seems to have suffering the same fate as yours. I cut it
right back as it had suffered from the Februrary frosts (it was doing fine
until then). Anyway, yesterday I dug it out and potted it up in the hope it
might come back. But I've planted a new one in its place, as I don't hold
out much hope. If any new growth appears I'll keep you posted.







"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article ,
JennyC wrote:
"Victor West" wrote in message
...

We have a passion flower at the end of our garden on a south facing
wall. It
has been there for a couple of years. Until recently it was growing
on a 10
foot long trellis. As it was getting quite overgrown we decided to
install
some wiring on the wall in order for it to grow further out.
However, the
passion flower appears to have dried out slightly and is looking
slightly
withered. Is this normal? I thought the reason may be that the plant
is
getting more air circulating around it. Any comments would be
appreciated.

The top growth has probably been caught by frost.

Test to see if the plant is still alive by carefully scraping the stem
near the roots with your thumbnail. If its green its alive - brown
means its probably dead :~(

If its still alive, wait a bit and then prune out the dead top growth.

Mine is similar. Most passion flowers are severely tropical, and
will not survive either frost or being cut back hard. P. caerulea
is the only one that can take most UK winters (the two even hardier,
herbaceous ones, P. lutea and P. incarnata, can't take the wet).
P. caerulea will also grow herbaceously when established.

So the key is not to do ANYTHING until the weather warms up. If it
reshoots, do what Jenny says. If it doesn't, cut it back to the
ground and it will probably resprout from its roots. But it may well
not do so until high summer.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Jack wrote:

My passionflower seems to have suffering the same fate as yours. I cut it
right back as it had suffered from the Februrary frosts (it was doing fine
until then). Anyway, yesterday I dug it out and potted it up in the hope it
might come back. But I've planted a new one in its place, as I don't hold
out much hope. If any new growth appears I'll keep you posted.







"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
In article ,
JennyC wrote:
"Victor West" wrote in message
...

We have a passion flower at the end of our garden on a south facing
wall. It
has been there for a couple of years. Until recently it was growing
on a 10
foot long trellis. As it was getting quite overgrown we decided to
install
some wiring on the wall in order for it to grow further out.
However, the
passion flower appears to have dried out slightly and is looking
slightly
withered. Is this normal? I thought the reason may be that the plant
is
getting more air circulating around it. Any comments would be
appreciated.

The top growth has probably been caught by frost.

Test to see if the plant is still alive by carefully scraping the stem
near the roots with your thumbnail. If its green its alive - brown
means its probably dead :~(

If its still alive, wait a bit and then prune out the dead top growth.

Mine is similar. Most passion flowers are severely tropical, and
will not survive either frost or being cut back hard. P. caerulea
is the only one that can take most UK winters (the two even hardier,
herbaceous ones, P. lutea and P. incarnata, can't take the wet).
P. caerulea will also grow herbaceously when established.

So the key is not to do ANYTHING until the weather warms up. If it
reshoots, do what Jenny says. If it doesn't, cut it back to the
ground and it will probably resprout from its roots. But it may well
not do so until high summer.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.


I concur with Nick.

Wait until at least May/June before giving up.. The other thing you
can do is protect roots from excessive wet and frost with a good thick
mulch. P. caerulea is listed by ART http://www.agroforesty.co.uk as
being hardey to -20 C but in my experience it really doesn't start
growing until established. Cutting back old or frosted growthtoo early
may be a mistake as it will provide some small protection if left in
situ.
//
Jim
North London, England, UK

Thanks for all the answers.
I think I'll wait and see cut back the dead parts and hope that it recovers.
If not I'll just plant something else there. It'll be a pity if I have lost
it because it was bursting with flowers last summer but, hey, that's all
part of gardening! )

Victor

In article ,
Victor West wrote:
Thanks for all the answers.
I think I'll wait and see cut back the dead parts and hope that it recovers.
If not I'll just plant something else there. It'll be a pity if I have lost
it because it was bursting with flowers last summer but, hey, that's all
part of gardening! )

Despite what I said, I saw that mine had started sprouting (it is in
a VERY warm spot for this garden), and so cut it back to just above
some active shoots. I shall see how it goes, but expect it to ramp
forward if the weather stays fairly warm.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article 1fsud8d.1gjj3xrrtyp4uN%00senetnospam@macunlimited .net,
(Jim W) writes:
|
| Actually ours never died back properly, just slows right down.. But here
| in London you can get away with that,.. my advice was for more average
| parts of the country..

In Cambridge, you can't!

| BTW Anyone got an Amethyst or a P. 'Constance Elliott' that they'd be
| willing to propagate for me.. (for suitable exchange of something..)

Well, I have nominally still got one of the latter, but I am
doubtful it will recover. I had to cut it back hard last autumn
(in a sunny conservatory) and it has not resprouted. I have
killed two Amethyst the same way. And I failed dismally to
propagate any of them!

Mealybug is a nightmare :-(


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Until I recently moved house I had a passion flower against a semi shaded
wall in Stockport, my friend Sarah has one in a totally shaded spot, and my
parents have one in full sun over in Barnsley. All three have always done
well, but from January to April they have always lost their leaves and
become barren, dead looking twig creatures! However, they have always
recovered, and flowered well through to November, with a bit of pruning to
remove any branches that were completely dead. My parents passion flower
last year produced many kilos of edible fruit too, after their plant put on
over 12 foot of growth!! (I've only ever had the odd fruit or two on mine,
and I don't think Sarah gets any)

So hopefully all is not lost for those plants which are a bit dejected right
now!

Kase

Kase wrote on Thu, 3 Apr 2003 12:40:47 +0000 (UTC) :

Until I recently moved house I had a passion flower against a semi shaded
wall in Stockport, my friend Sarah has one in a totally shaded spot, and my
parents have one in full sun over in Barnsley.

snip

So hopefully all is not lost for those plants which are a bit dejected right
now!

Kase


We are not too far from Barnsley, and we inherited a passion flower when
we moved in last September. The previous occupant grumbled that 2002 was
the first time since he planted it (in 1994) that it had flowered. We
had a succession of single flowers (rarely more than one at any time)

Unless it performs better this year, it is for the chop: I hate lazy
plants!

I have pruned it back quite hard, and it seems healthy, Time will tell.