I'm growing both P. edulis 'Nancy Garrison' and 'Frederick'. We hit 26 or 27 last winter. Neither is in a particularly protected area. I threw some plastic over Frederick during our cold night/morning, but it was probably a little too late. This was a plant in a pot, and the major growing tip was fried. After a few other problems--snails, squirrels, etc. the plant was in bad shape but now it looks great, although set back quite a bit. 'Nancy Garrison' suffered little damage--none to the growing points, possible minor damage to the oldest leaves, but I'm not sure. Regardless, it didn't slow it down. I bought the plant last summer in a 4 inch pot from Grassy Knoll and it now has about 50 fruits. 'Nancy Garrison' is supposed to be one of the hardiest cultivars, although there seems to be some disagreement out there--but it's known there are some incorrectly labeled clones out there that are not 'Nancy Garrison'. 1990 had by far the coldest weather in California in recent memory--it generally got about 20 F in the South Bay. Apparently 'Nancy Garrison' died to the ground, recovered and fruited that year. I don't know if the plant in that story was Nancy's own--but I understand she does live in San Jose. Here are the temperatures reported for San Jose over a period starting December 21st 1990 (high/low). These are at the airport, which is a little milder than most areas: 37/28 36/23 39/23 44/24 52/27 57/30 54/32 51/33 51/28 50/28 53/30 53/32 The parent of Nancy Garrison was apparently an old plant that had been growing for many years near an abandoned barn--so it was likely exposed to quite a bit of cold over the years. I have no idea where either of the two plants were grown, but we are generally zone 9b. If you are interested in cuttings for postage let me know. Seeds are fun, and unlike a lot of plants should give you quality fruit. I assume they take a year or two longer than cuttings to bloom/fruit. A named variety guarantees that you get high quality fruit, and in this case probably an extra couple degrees of cold tolerance. I would say the cuttings are neither hard nor easy to root (although I did try in November or December--and I think I got 100%). Bottom heat helps a lot.

My 'Incense' has been blooming prolifically for weeks with no fruits, but I noticed this evening that there are two fruits coming out of some spent flowers. About ?4 weeks ago, I transplanted a puny little p. incarnata from the totally shady spot where it had been trying to grow to a spot right down the fence from where the 'Incense' and 'Lady Margarets' are. I added a good bit of chicken manure in with the planting mix, and that, plus all the sun it's now getting caused it to grow prolifically. It's been blooming for about 7-10 days, and the bees and other insects travel back and forth, I've watched them. It'll be interesting to see if these fruits continue to grow and make mature seeds, make hollow fruits, or just abort. By the way, the p. incarnata that I transplanted came from some seed that I took from local, roadside maypops. The leaves on this p. incarnata are a little thicker and more serrated than those I've got planted in my garden that I ordered from a nursery in Tennessee - the flowers look and smell just the same. I've been enjoying my two new books - the beautiful pictures are eye candy! :) Sherry

Michael, I did run across this statement: "In the absence of flowers or fruit, P. sexflora is easily confused with P. capsularis and P. rubra. The middle leaf lobe is usually much more developed than in these two." http://www.archive.org/stream/americanspeciesofikill/americanspeciesofikill_djvu.txt As far as I'm aware P. sexflora doesn't have dehiscent fruit (opens up like that). I think those are characteristic of Xerogona (which does not include sexflora) and according to Ulmer et al some in Bryonioides. Also as far as I know capsularis has angled fruit like Karyn described. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong...

GardnerDc, Where is there passionfruit at the local Stop/Shop? I thought Stop/Shops existed only in the Northeast. Have you seen any elsewhere? I'm usually grocery shopping over here on the MD side. What time of the year was it? I'm just over the border in MD. Having just spent a year in Australia, where they have many varieties of passionfruit, my son and I are craving them desperately. The canned syruppy stuff that I lugged back with us are NOT to be compared with the fresh fruit. I'm a newbie at all this gardening stuff. If I get a hold of some seed, can you tell me how you got it to germinate in your zone? Was it very involved? Did you try any winter sowing? I'm 6/7 MD. (I didn't think they'd grow here, but you've obviously been successful. I'll trade your germination tips for some yummy Aussie dessert recipes calling for passionfruit. They are also awesome just spooned out of their shells, a crunchy delight with an unmistakeable aroma! I don't know that I can stand to wait 2 years. I'd probably be more apt to buy the fruit if I can find it:) Meanwhile, I'll take a peek at that FL website mentioned above.