Red Passion Flower

[Punkin]

My neighbor has a Red Passion Flower Vine growing around her house thick as a jungle. I have a small hill behind my home and I'd love to replace the weeds with this beautiful vine. I'm very new to gardening and hope someone can help me learn how to propagate from cuttings.

Thanks for any help that's out there!

[Ann B.]

Hi, Punkin!

Welcome to Landspro!

This time of the year, you can watch for the vines to start popping up here and there within about 10-15 feet of the vine. You have to spot them before they get mowed because mowing them will stop their growth.

The following page explains how I transplant these little vines:

http://www.landspro.com/page20.htm

As the vine grows, you can take cuttings of mature vines as explained in the vines by stem cutting page on Landspro:

http://www.landspro.com/page18.htm

Both methods require that the soil be kept moist at all times.

Good Luck and Have FUN!!!!

[Punkin]

Thank you, Ann. I'll try the second method if my neighbor will allow me to take some cuttings. I'll let you know how it turns out. About how many plants should I start? The area I hope to cover is about 30 feet wide and another 30 feet up the hill. How close should I plant the plants at the base of the hill and how quickly do the plants grow?

Again, thank you for your help. :)

[Ann B.]

Your cutting will root in about 4 weeks. In two months, it will be sizeable, but not as big as they get. The second year, it will get really big. The third year and thereafter, a single vine will cover 30 foot wide easily.

For a 30 foot depth, I would plant them 8 to 10 feet apart.

Do you have a trellis or any kind of support or will these be on the ground? If they are on the ground, be sure to put down landscape fabric and mulch or you will have a difficult time weeding because the vines can become so dense that you wouldn't be able to step inside to pull weeds.

They also soil layer very easily, so if you have one started, you can let the vine touch the ground, weight it with a rock or something and most likely it will root.

These vines get large here, snf of course they die down to the ground in the winter if you get frost or freezes.

[Ann B.]

My big one had to be cut back drastically in order to upright the fence that went down during T.S. Cindy. However, here is a bloom on the west side fence. This one also had to be cut back so that we could board up the windows. I am grateful that these blooms were not part of what was cut back.

[Punkin]

Thanks again, Ann! I was completely unsuccessful in getting cuttings to root. So I started the hunt for mature plants and found two at my local Loew's Store! I found this big netting-trellis stuff on the internet and we secured it to the ground to give the plants a headstart in climbing the hill. We planted a couple of weeks ago and they seem to be pretty happy! I hope by next spring to have a hill full of beautiful red blooms. The San Francisco Bay area doesn't know what snow is (although we've heard about it), so I expect they will be evergreen!

[Ann B.]

Good Luck! And please do let us know how it goes...

This is one nice, HUGE vine!