PASSION FLOWERS.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1884, 8 March 1880, Page 3

PASSION FLOWERS.

These splendid stove and greenhouse climbers are favourites with most people as flowering subjects, and one or two varieties are also grown for their fruit, viz., P. quadrangularis and edulis. Of the latter we mayspeak first. These are hardy and subjects that are more easily grown and fruited when the cultivator sets about it in the right way. Cuttings struck in autumn, and shifted out of a 4in. pot into a 14in. one in January, we have had a heavy crop of fruit from within the year. The stove varieties of the passion flower grow with amazing rapidity—as much as two or three inches in twenty-four hours. A plant of P. quadrangularis that we had made about 2Coft. of young growth between January and July, besides what was cut out in thinning, and set in the same period one hundred or more fruits, but it did not bring more than half that quantity to maturity. It was too much for a young plant, and the fruit dropped at the seeding period, but the fifty which were left swelled freely, and weighed generally about half a pound apiece. The fruit is rather large for its weight. P, edulis, the most commonly cultivated fruiting kind, bears even more abundantly ; but the fruit is not half the size of the other. Now is the time to think of starting plants for fruiting. Both quadrangularis and edulis require a stove temperature, and should bo trained within a foot of the glass, and never be shaded. Amongst a general collection of stove plants it is apt tO' get infested with mealy bug, which greatly interferes with its growth, and it is therefore better to give the plant a house or pit to itself when grown for its fruit. Young plants, intended to fruit the same year, should not have too much root room, but be confined to a largo pot plunged in the bed, and kept at the same temperature as the house. Care must also be taken that the roots at no time get through the bottom of the pot into the bod beneath, —at least, before the fruit is fairly swelling. A general night temperature of 70deg.. and from 75deg. to lOOdeg. by day, should be maintained from beginning to end of the season ; but an abatement may bo allowed in severe weather.

The fruit is produced from the -joints of the young wood, the flowprs appearing in succession along the shoot as growth progresses; consequently the young shoots should never be shortened back, but allowed to extend as fast as they will. They must, however, be thinned out freely beiore getting too crowded. Our practice was to train two shoots to each wire, six inches asunder. As the flowers expand they must be fertilised with a camelhair pencil—an operation requiring to be performed every day, as when the plant begins to flower blossoms are continually expanding, and th„y do not last above twenty-four hours. Plenty of meisture at the root, and a genial moist stove temperature, are the general conditions to be observed throughout the season, and, when the crops have begun to swell, frequent applications of weak liquid manure may be given. The fruit should be gathered as soon as ripe, and it will keep a long while on a shelf in a cool diy room. Both the above varieties will grow and flower in a cooler structure than a stove, but they will not fruit successfully. The treatment of other stove and _ greenhouse kinds grown for their flowers is much the same as that describod. In habit all the varieties ore nearly alike, and their flowering successfully depends upon the keeping up of active growth, lotting the ehoots extend, thinning freely, and giving tho plants plenty of sunlight and air and the proper degree of heat. The pest most to be feared is bug, which clusters about tho axils of the leaves, and does much injury. It should never be allowed to gain a footing; but it attacks some varieties worse than others. Good fibry loam and sand suits the passion flower well, and it succeeds best when planted out; but, when it cannot have unlimited room to grow, it is much tho best plan to confine the roots to a pot or tub, just according to the top room permitted. Tho pot should always be plunged, but not necessarily in bottom heat. Of the so-called hardy passion flowers, P. coerulea is the best. It succeeds without protection in the south of England, and may often be seen thriving near the sea coast in the north. In Scotland it is also grown on warm walls, but has to be covered up with mats and straw during winter. It makes a floe climber for a house front, and is worth particular attention in tho matter of culture. Where the soil is naturally cold and unsuitable, a box or trough should be prepared close to the bottom of the wall, and drained and filled with light rich compost, consisting of loam, leaf mould, rotten cow manure, and sand ; and if the box can be exposed to tho sun, all the better. It may of course be planted and hid with other plants, if its appearance be objectionable. The plant will grow without this care, but it will not flower nor ripen its wood nearly so well. I once saw a fine plant mantling a house front in North Lancashire that had been cared for in this way. Some of the best stove varieties are P. quadrangularis, Bonapartea, kermeeina, and prinoops. The greenhouse kinds are more numerous, and include Comte Nesselrode, Imperatrice Eugenie, Bellotti, Newmanii, Campbolli, and others, but these named are amongst the best.