I see! Beautiful flower!

GigiPlumeria said:I see! Beautiful flower!

They really are. But you know, you can grow passiflora too. If you're on a city lot then I would pick one of the ones that are known to not be so aggressive. They *can* be put on an arbor or fence. The blooms are wonderfully fragrant too -- I don't know if all the cultivars are equally fragrant so that would be a consideration.

That's right, Ann. I have four different passi's and only the quadrangularis has fragrant flowers.

It's a really great vine for an arbor or pergola and will cover the whole thing pretty fast. But down here they only last about 3 or 4 years before trunk rot gets to them and they give up. So I do have to re-plant mine regularly, except for the red one, coccinea which seems to just go on and on all by itself and climbs up to the top of the big oak tree sometimes.

I'm pretending I didn't hear you're growing the red passiflora. I feel like climbing the soapbox...just tell me you have at least one native for the butterflies.

Guilty, Melanie. But the red one I didn't plant, honest! It grows wild in our back 40, behind my husband's shop. I do not encourage it in any way.

The Gulf Frittilaries seem to really love my 'Lady Margaret' so I'm thinking it must be a relative of the native at least. I also have incarnata 'Purple Possum' that makes good fruit and the quadrangularis which will have to go this fall as it took over my mango tree to a great extent this summer, makes beautiful fragrant flowers but never bears any fruit. No thugs in my garden if they don't work for the flutterbys or make fruit.

I was never sure about 'Lady Margaret' just from the look of it, but I know many people who say the caterpillars eat it and are fine. Glad you have some Passiflora for the butterflies.

I've got the P. incarnata 'Alba', and it comes up everywhere!!! But I don't really care, 'cuz it's so easy to pull up, and the Gulf Frits love it!
My only problem is that our city has decided that spraying for mosquitos is more important! My passi's are so robust right now! In the past they would have been totally devoured by the cats. Since the city is spraying so much more, I'm not seeing as many cats, the gulf frits are much smaller in size, and the P. incarnata is huge and healthy!
I'd really rather be seeing a vine that is totally decimated, and cats fat and healthy.

They've been spraying here a lot lately because of all the flooding. It's actually raining right now. I saw the mosquito spray truck when I was at the gas station a couple of weeks ago. I had a batch of Polydamas die around the same time and I can't help but wonder if the two are related. The Polydamas Swallowtail cats haven't been doing well this year, though, so it may be something else. I live along a main road so the trucks spray right at my fence, I'm sure. We just had our first human case of West Nile Virus reported in Pinellas County, though, so I guess they have to spray for health reasons.

My polydamas must have missed the memo. Both my A. trilobata and fimbriata are just recovering from their 2nd chew down. Lady Margaret is a cross of coccinea and incarnata. I used to have it but the Gulf Frit's kept it chewed down so much it finally died. The Zebra longwings didn't use it as much. They will use the P. Incence which has incarnata breeding also.

Well, also I'm guessing your County doesn't spray for skeeters too close to your house, either Mj? You have a butterfly 'preserve' going there.

I do get the Zebra longwings on 'Lady Margaret' from time to time but I think they have a lot of other things in my garden that they like. I see them constantly, and they roost here at night, too.

I wondered why this is the first year 'Lady Margaret' has actually done pretty well, and it's been in the same place 5 years. Come to think of it, haven't seen a lot of Frittillaries around here this year. Was thinking it was just the extra water, but probably not as much munching is going on.

Elaine, yes, our house sits farther back off the road then most folks. My front yard is probably as big as or bigger than the average lot.

They do fly over spraying in this area but I don't remember the last time I saw the plane and when they drive by it's usually at night. They do come by and put the pellets and gambusia in the ditches in the area.

This turned out to be a great thread, I learned a lot about what plants our FL ATP family is growing in our area.

I learned about our winged friends too, makes me want to plant more wing friendly plants.

Hard to believe that last day of August is here! Hoping for a great fall garden. I have tomatoes and veggie starts, and I plant to fill my garden with spices and herbs. Let's see!

everyone for participating and keep posting, summer is not yet over but I sure will welcome a colder fall weather gardening.

I agree it's hard to imagine tomorrow is September, but it won't FEEL like fall for another 6 weeks here...

I used to grow Passion Flower (Passiflora 'Lady Margaret') but they only seemed to live for @ three years and then disappear. A few different B'flies enjoyed the nectar but the Gulf Fritillary Cat's devoured the leaves. These are old photos from 2010:

Thought this anole looked very cool against my Black Cherry.

thread....and pics, now let us keep going!

Hello everyone since it is already September 1, I started a new thread for Fall:

Come everyone and post your fall garden:

The thread "Florida Garden - Fall and Winter 2015" in Florida Gardening forum

Florida Native Plant Society posted this on Facebook and I found it really interesting. I always loved mythology.



"Symbols of fertility, Mother Earth and her Titan daughter Tethys produced a race of female divinities known as nymphs…The nymphs were young, beautiful and occupied and protected their own realms here on Earth.

One particular nymph, Smilax, was loved by a mortal lad, Crocus. But Smilax could not make a decision to accept Crocus…Her indecision irritated the Gods, who decided to turn Crocus and Smilax into two plants that had such different habits that they never saw each other again.

Crocus provides us with saffron, the herb derived from the three part stigmas of the flower, and some species of Smilax provide the main ingredient of the drink Sarsaparilla, derived from the roots.
We have several species of Smilax here in Florida, none of which are used to produce the drink Sarsaparilla, but were used by the Indians to produce a flour substitute. Crocus are native to areas throughout the Mediterranean, as well as western China.

I guess the moral to this story would be something like: “If you can’t make up your mind, that lack of decision making could end up being a thorny proposition…Have a great day, and may Crocus make all your rice yellow…"

Interesting Melanie

for sharing.