Passionflower Or Passion Flower, Growing In An Apartment

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

• What is passionflower
• Reproduction of passionflower
• Medicinal properties of passionflower

There are many subtropical and tropical fruit plants, which for their beauty, decorativeness, and relative simplicity were introduced into indoor culture. One of the prominent places among them is passionflower. In fact, there are a lot of them in the tropics, about 400; in our country, 9 are grown on the Black Sea coast, and only three are found in the rooms: occasionally brush and carmine, and mostly blue passionflower, synonyms: passion flower or cavalier star (Passiflora cerulea L.).

What is passionflower

This is one of our most beautiful indoor vines. Her homeland is Brazil. It grows very quickly, so it is suitable for creating graceful garlands over windows and doors. Loves space for both stems and roots. Stems are green, faceted, up to 6 m long. Evergreen leaves, alternate, with stipules, very graceful, 5-9-palmate-lobed, bluish-green, up to 10 cm in diameter. The leaf lobes are narrow, lanceolate, whole-edged. Long spiral tendrils grow from the leaf axils, with which the passionflower clings to the support on which the plant forms a solid green mass from the leaves.

In nature, it is shade-tolerant, but in room culture it grows well and blooms only in warm rooms with good lighting. Passionflower blooms on annual shoots, so it is cut short in autumn. In addition, for successful flowering and fruiting, the plant needs mandatory winter rest. And it should be at this time in a bright, cool room, but with a temperature of at least 7-12 ° C, with rare watering. Under unfavorable room conditions, passionflower sometimes overwinters in a leafless state.

In March, the plants are brought into a warm room. In addition, for better flowering in spring and summer, it is also necessary to remove all zero shoots extending from the base of the plant. With a lack of light and heat, passionflower forms a large mass of decorative leaves, but does not bloom. Plants that are not rested or cut off do not flower either. For better flowering in spring, passionflower is cut into 3-5 eyes, from which shoots that bear flower buds develop.

Passiflora flowers are axillary, very original, huge, single, in the form of a four-tiered star. Below are five green sepals, then a row of pale or bluish blue, greenish blue or yellow petals; five stamens and a pistil with three reddish-brown stigmas fused on a column, at the base of which there is a disc of numerous narrow lilac cilia. The diameter of the flower reaches 10 cm. It is very similar to some ancient order, for which the plant received one of its names. Unfortunately, each individual flower is short-lived, but the flowering of the whole plant is very long - from May to October. After flowering, the peduncle branches are greatly shortened, and the non-lignified shoots are cut out.

Passionflower fruit - large, the size of a hen's egg, fragrant and tasty yellow or orange berry with seeds inside; falls off when ripe. To grow passionflower, a trellis or some other support made of wooden slats, bamboo, wire or cord is required. Passionflower should not be exposed to the open air. Although she loves to grow in well-ventilated rooms, she absolutely cannot stand drafts - she sheds buds and leaves.

Reproduction of passionflower

Propagated passionflower seeds, layering, grafting stem and root cuttings (in April). Seeds are sown in February - March. The temperature for their germination is 20 … 24 ° С, while sufficient humidity of the soil and air must be observed. However, in room culture, it is more often propagated by cuttings, in early spring - green, and in June-July - partially lignified. Cuttings are cut with two leaves and planted in a mixture of sand and peat (1: 1) or in clean sand. At a temperature not lower than 20 ° C, rooting occurs in one month. With good care, it can bloom the next year after rooting.

Passionflower requires a mandatory annual transplant, it is carried out in the spring, in late March - early April. Loves rich, but light soil mixtures. Usually they are prepared from turf and humus soil with the addition of sand and peat (2: 2: 1: 1), or from turf, heather and deciduous (1: 2: 1).

You can also grow passionflower in a hydroponic culture on a nutrient solution Gericke, or GDR - 2 (for a hydroponic culture of ornamental plants) at a pH of 5.6-5.8. Passionflower in room culture tolerates dustiness and gas pollution well. Loves the sun and abundant watering, but does not tolerate stagnant moisture. And when dry, the buds fall off. Watering in the summer should be frequent (almost daily) and plentiful, combined with spraying the leaves, and in winter - moderate (spraying is stopped). During the period of active growth, passionflower spends a lot of nutrients, in connection with which it must be regularly fed throughout the growing season, especially with phosphorus fertilizers. The main plant pests are aphids, scale insects and spider mites; control measures are standard.

Medicinal properties of passionflower

Passionflower also has medicinal properties. The entire aerial part of the plant serves as a medicinal raw material. It contains about 0.05% alkaloids: harman, harmine and harmol, as well as phenolic compounds, flavonoids, coumarins, quinones, proteins and pectins. Liquid extract from leaves and stems (1: 2) is a sedative for neurasthenia, chronic alcoholism, climacteric disorders. The daily dose is 2-5 g of liquid extract or 20-40 g of a dry plant in the form of a decoction.

As a deciduous ornamental plant, passionflower is unpretentious, and it is not difficult to grow it, and in this form you will get an interesting and beautiful houseplant. But making it bloom, let alone bear fruit, is very difficult. Even in the open field, it bears fruit irregularly, and the yield is usually small. And if it blooms in your room, and even more so if it bears fruit, even if only a few pieces, then it will be a real reward for all your efforts and efforts.