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The Passion Flower is cold hardy throughout zones 6-10. It is very invasive here in zone 7, but dies back to the ground every winter. The blooms are almost alien like in appearence, with an extreme fragrance. The blooms last one day, from early morning to late night. Passion Fruit is produced out of the bloom. The fruit is about as big as a fist, full of mostly air and seeds, but contains a small amount of meat in the center, which can be used for cooking or just as a snack right off the vine. Passion Flower is a vine with dark glossy green leaves that are lobed at the top. The leaves are bigger towards the top of the vine, sometimes as big as a napkin. The flowers are of course purple, with some white mixed in. It attracts many bees and hummingbirds throughout the summer. It begins to bloom from the middle of June to the middle of October in my area, maybe longer in areas with longer growing seasons? I have had my Passion Flower vine for 2 years and in that time, it has managed to grow 15ft(>5m). It grows nearly 3 inches per day and seems to grow best in lots of heat and humidity, in full sun. On a 90F day, I've seen this vine grow 5 inches! Its not Kudzu, but be careful where you put this vine. I have mine on a trellis with my Chinese Porcelain Vine, which is now taken over by the Passion Flower! Passiflora incarnata also seems to have a heck of a root system. Runners are popping up everywhere within a 8 foot radius of the vine, which I mow over constantly . The tendrils have also managed to grab a hold of my Hardy Hibiscus pulling them every which way. Despite its invasive nature, that can be solved my simple pruning and chopping. The fruits produced are well worth the trouble, as well as the beauty and fragrance of the blooms which lure hummingbirds all summer! I recommend it!

Hi,
Is any one else out there growing this flower? I would like to hear about it

This one is call the blue passion fruit vine. The flower is mostly white with blue. If you check out my website you will see a pic of the flower. Mine stays evergreen all year. It flowers from April to November. It too is invasive but easily controlled. I have had shoots come out 20 feet away!
To get proper fruit you need two vines and perferably of two different species. Then the fruit will be fleshy inside. I only have the one vine so mine is not producing fuit but it gets a small egg sized orange fruit.

Thanks for the info Wes

We can grow a lot of different passiflora here in 8B. The most hardy by far is P. caerulea. Its a blue. ALso extremely hardy is P. edulis, and P. "Lavendar Lady". There is a red, P. coccinea, that is gorgeous as well. But unless you are willing to fight for it, if you live in a rural area like I do, Passiflora is a favorite food of deer. I have to discourage them from eating mine all up. The plants are also the host food for the Gulf Frittilarie (sp) butterfly, they eat the leaves and lay their eggs on the plant, as well as sipping the nectar of the flowers. Passiflora are butterfly magnets so we plant a lot of them