Giant Passion Fruit Flower - Passiflora quadrangularis

Passiflora quadrangularis, also named Passiflora Macrocarpa or Giant Granadilla, is a perennial vine, looking much like Passiflora alata, but its flowers are bigger. Native to Central and South America it is grown for it's large ornamental fragrant flowers and the large fruits. It climbs by means of clinging tendrils and can be kept as an container plant. The long tendrils need lots of support for climbing. Fast growing vine which can grow over 50 feet high. It may be grown as a houseplant in a sunny South-facing window. A vigorous tropical vine with large bright green oval leaves, 7-13 cm long, 6-10 cm wide. The stems are quadrangular in shape. One of the loveliest and most exotic of the Passion flowers producing gorgeous purple, white and blue banded fragrant flowers, measuring 8-10 cm across in a long succession from mid Summer to Autumn. It produces giant green to yellow Passion fruits reaching over one foot in diameter. The pulp is white or grayish and is not as flavorfull as the common Passion fruit, but still tasty and often eaten or used in drinks. It rarely produces fruit under greenhouse conditions but makes up for this by the sheer glory of its flowers. Pruning is a must to keep the vine healthy. Prune off less vigorous growth and occasionally prune back vigorous growth to promote flowering. When established, and without care, the passion fruit can easily overtake other garden plants, shading them from sun. Hardiness zone 10, (1C/35F) in Winter. Protect from frost or plant in frost free areas. The Giant Granadilla is hardy to 35F when mature, frost tender when young. Provide ideally a temperature of 15- 28C . Keep the atmosphere humid through the Summer and place in full sun, can tolerate partial shade. Passiflora Quadrangularis loves the warm humid Tropics. You may need to water your plants on a daily basis during the hottest Summer months. During the Winter the roots should be kept moist, but as growth will be much slower you will probably only need to water once a week, depending on growing temperature. It will do best in a loam based mix with a little peat moss. If their pot is too large or if they have an unrestricted root run then the whole plant will simply get bigger and bigger but it will refuse to flower and therefore produce the fruits. By limiting the pot size you are limiting the ability to grow and this is seen as a threat, so the natural mechanism is to produce seed for the next generation. A suitably sized pot for an adult plant would generally be of 12 inches in diameter.