Devon Subtropical Garden

This system with 3 sensors is ideal.

Dahlia imperialis had loads of weak new growth. All down now!

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First frost last night, and a sharp one. Exactly what was needed to stop weedy new growth and reset plants. Greenhouse heating passed first test of the season (looking to keep a minimum of +5C)
Time to focus on clearing up and generating lovely compost for next year.

The greenhouse is now nearly winter ready. All plants are back in and the heaters are ready for the first cold night.
Heated trays are already in place and protecting the most tender items and other greenhouse inhabitants!
And yes we are a right soft touch (see second pic)

Just 7 1/2 hours to go to Vote in the National Trust Council elections. Your vote will help keep out the Restore Trust entryists.

I’ve now had it confirmed that this is #Passiflora ‘Scarlet Flame’ which is not quite as tender as its parent, P. vitifolia. Nevertheless I will overwinter it very dry (misting more often than watering) &in September grafted some shoots to the hardy P. caerulea which will overwinter on a heated tray

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A bit of late season #passiflora colour:
P. ‘Scarlet Flame’
P. ‘Blue Nun’*
P. ‘Pura Vida’
P. ‘Byte’

*unofficial name - our open pollinated hybrid of P. ‘La Morellina’

Sharing the joys of cat sitting for our neighbour when they expect photos and videos every day.
Enjoy…

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We had a lot of fun giving our Tropical Plants talk to Ilfracombe flower club yesterday.We seem to be in moderately high demand at the moment which is nice!
Someone described these talks as ‘a cross between a gardening talk & a slightly sinister piece of performance art.’ A compliment, probably!

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Some great scented passionflowers n the greenhouse today.
Here is one of our latest seedlings, an open pollinated seedling from P. ‘Fata Confetto’ so far free flowering,robust and well scented. We will see how it overwinters
&the glorious P. ‘Byte’ one of the best scented #passiflora you can grow

P. ‘Scarlet Flame’ a beautiful hybrid of P. vitifolia with brighter and bigger flowers which is also more tolerant of lower winter temperatures (testing this year but hopefully as low as +7C)

P. ‘Pretty Tina’ is a cross of P. tarapotina and P. caerulea by Martin Drews and is glorious

P. ‘Pura Vida’ a hybrid by S. Kamstra, a breeder from the Netherlands in the 1990s. Utterly gorgeous!

The second form of P. ‘Buzios’ that we have with slightly darker and smaller flowers. A truly top plant!

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Lots of great colour from the #passiflora in the greenhouse.
P. ‘Scarlet Flame’,
P. ‘Pretty Tina’
P. ‘Pura Vida’
P. ‘Buzios’ (a form or hybrid of P. princeps - used to be called P. racemosa)
All lovely but none are scented.

Correction 3rd one is hybrid of P. ‘Fata Confetto’ rather than ‘Las Morellina’

Some passionflowers:
tacsonia hybrid - we have been growing this as P. ‘Coral Seas’ but it probably isn’t!
P. ‘Michael’ - has done well this year.
An open pollinated hybrid of P. ‘La Morellina’ - really like this one.
P. ‘Vivacious Velvet’ our amethystina caerulea hybrid - great scent.

As the season winds down and day length, light intensity and temperatures reduce some #passiflora flowers stay open for 2 or 3 days giving some dramatic displays.
Here are P. ‘Byte’, P. ‘Fata Confetto’ and a seed raised P. incarnata.

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Some lovely #passiflora action today. Here’s P. ‘Pura Vida’ with really strong Autumn colour and the night flowering P. ‘Annette’ which can stay open all day when it gets duller and the days get shorter.

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Better late than never!
It’s not been a vintage year for our indoor hedychiums, my fault mainly as we have prioritised Passiflora.
This is likely to be the only flower from H. maximum, the huge scented glory of autumn.
More to follow as it opens.
I will try harder next year!

One big #passiflora success this year has been this P. ‘Michael’ (P. x vitifolia x P. caerulea) with its huge red flowers.
Although not prolific, it has flowered steadily through the season (with a few buds to come) and has remained healthy. I have now grafted some bits to P. caerulea rootstock.

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This was a lovely surprise this morning. An open pollinated seedling from #Passiflora ‘Fata Confetto’ (seen in last pic) sown this spring. It is healthy looking and full of buds. The flowers are pretty, decent sized and have a good scent. I think this is a keeper!

#Passiflora x decaisneana has dark coloured sepals and petals whereas its parent, P. quadrangularis has paler petals and is also more tender and difficult to cultivate. P. x decaisneana can take down to +5 C or a bit lower. To keep it healthy and flowering keep it under potted and don’t pot up after mid August. Like all passionflowers keep it shaded from harsh direct June/July sunlight.

It is a big plant with thick square sectioned shoots that can be a bit brittle. Provide lots of support and in winter keep the pot up off the greenhouse floor.

This is P. ‘Buzios’ which is either a hybrid or a pink form of P. racemosa (now P. princeps) which has this unusual pale pollen. It has been used as a pollen donor successfully although it doesn’t set viable seed itself.

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Busy with gardening open today so quick share from yesterday. So here’s the magnificent #Passiflora x decaisneana (often missold as quadrangularis - but it’s a hybrid of that & P. alata and a much easier plant to manage) wonderful huge scented flowers. I’ve crossed it with pollen from P. ‘Buzios’

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It’s red/purple day in the greenhouse.
#Passiflora ‘Marijke’ (P. x decaisneana x P. caerulea)
P. cocuyensis ‘Nova’
P. ‘Michael’ (P. vitifolia x P. caerulea)
& P. ‘Pura Vida’ ((P. kermesina x P. caerulea) x P. princeps)

Lovely!

We even have a P. x decaisneana about to flower.

#Passiflora caerulea fruit are edible but a bit insipid. The best way to think of them is as ‘cookers’ rather than ‘eaters’ once they are fully ripe.
Sliced then baked with apple in a crumble they make a rather sophisticated alternative to blackberries, just a bit crunchy!

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By far the two best outdoor hedychium to grow (beating Tara, densiflorum etc by virtue of great scent & long flowering - each inflorescence up to 2 weeks as opposed to 4 to 5 days) are ‘Devon Cream’ & ‘Corelli’.
But which is best?
No point disturbing Harry Hill with this one, just grow both.

#Passiflora x allardii has a wonderful citrus like scent

#Passiflora x belotii has a very heavy sweet scent which is how it can be distinguished from P. x allardii (as well as darker centre). There are several similar forms around!

#Passiflora ‘Byte’ gets its name from the first 2 letters of its parents name. It has just occurred to me that if I was similarly named I’d be called ‘Bean’. Has a heavy sweet pea type scent.

#passiflora ‘Fata Confetto’ (the Italian for ‘Sugar Plum Fairy’) is delightful. Similar scent to Byte but lighter. Also potentially hardy!

Some wonderfully scented #passiflora in the greenhouse.
P. x allardii (P. x decaisneana* x P. caerulea)
P. x belotii (P. alata x P. caerulea)
P. ‘Byte’ (P. ‘Byron Beauty’ x P. ‘Temptation’)
P. ‘Fata Confetto’ (P. ‘Guglielmo Betto’ x P. cincinnata 'Dark Pollen'.

*probably-published as quadrangularis

#Passiflora ‘Michael’

P. x violacea ‘Victoria’ (Or just P. ‘Victoria’ to its friends)

#Passiflora ‘Pretty Tina’

#Passiflora ‘Blue Nun’

Some top quality colourful #passiflora hybrids in the greenhouse:
P. ‘Michael’ (P. vitifolia x P. caerulea)
P. x violacea ‘Victoria’ (P. caerulea x P. princeps)
P. ‘Pretty Tina’ (P. tarapotina x P. caerulea)
& our hybrid P. ‘Blue Nun’ (P. ‘La Morellina’ open pollinated)

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As the days shorten, temperatures drop and the intensity of the sun lessens some #passiflora start to flower and some that have been flowering all summer like Cor Laurens’s recent P. caerulea x P. kermesina hybrid, P. ‘Beervelde’ and ancient hybrid P. ‘Victoria’ develop deeper colours.

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First flower from a seedling that germinated outside from batch discarded a 2 years ago. Might be hybrid of P. ‘Fata Confetto’ (last pic with a bee on).
Flowers are smaller & less fancy than ‘Fata Confetto’ but scent is excellent & it’s free flowering. Definitely a keeper!
More to come!

Devon Subtropical Garden Visit the post for more.

If you missed us waffling on about plants on Gardeners World last Autumn or you haven’t been to one of our talks you have a chance to catch up today. You could visit us see here devonsubtropicalgarden.rocks or listen to Toby Buckland at on BBC radio Devon for a quick summary

P. cocuyensis sp. Nova Has been confused with P. semiciliosa which we also grow, though it’s not flowered yet.

P. x exoniensis is a hybrid of P. antioquiensis and is often mis sold as it. The name exoniensis refers to Exeter where it was originally raised by the long gone Veitch nursery (Veitch rhymes with beach)

P. tucumanensis is potentially hardy but does a brilliant job of growing up into the roof and dangling flowering shoots. We got the seed for this as a cross with P. incarnata but once it flowered it was clear that it was the species.

#Passiflora x decaisneana We have grown a number of these square stemmed passionflowers with varying degrees of success over the past 20 years. We have not had any for the past few years and are so happy to have got this one (probably the best of the bunch) growing well and getting ready to open its huge scented red flowers. Watch this space

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Today’s #passiflora report
Beautiful red P. cocuyensis ‘Nova’
The shocking pink flowers of P. x exoniensis
A bee on a tiny P. tucumanensis
&finally most excitingly a flower bud on P. X decaisneana (often sold as the species P. quadrangularis but most frequently you get this hybrid-a better plant)

Our greenhouse is kept at +4C minimum too and these are fine. Fata Confetto takes to -10, but we also graft the more tender ones (eg vitifolia) to caerulea rootstock so instead of needing +16 min it thrives down to 4!

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#Hedychium ‘Tai Golden Goddess’ reminding us why it deserves its prominent position in the greenhouse.
Lovely scent at a reasonable height (some require a step ladder to enjoy!)

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From tiny plug plants to huge flowering monsters in 3 & a half months(if given ideal conditions)
#Passiflora ‘Byte’ & P. ‘Fata Confetto’ are scented delights for your greenhouse/conservatory.
Video on how to achieve this will follow at some point.

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Ok, let’s do this!
The sun is shining and there is plenty of cake!
@ngsopengardens.bsky.social