Belotii Passion Flower / Passiflora x belotii in the NE Florida Landscape
This has got to be one of the best passionflowers available in our area for the gardener who is just wanting a beautiful flowering vine for their garden to enjoy. It stays in bloom from late spring / early summer right through to fall and into the winter season till our first freeze. , mine at home is still blooming in mid December as I write this here in NE Florida and has lasted a few years on my garden gate trellis so far. I have a curved cattle panel over the gate entry to the backyard as an arbor that it calls home. It just always seems to be looking fantastic. I could not have chosen a better welcome to the garden than passionflowers in bloom!
Origins of passion flower belotti:
The Passiflora genus is considered pan-tropical, it is distributed among the tropical regions of the earth and consists of more then 500 species with most found in South America, eastern Asia, southern Asia, and New Guinea and some found in our very own SE United States like our native passiflora incarnata. They are members of the family passifloraceae and may be a vine, shrub, or herbaceous plant
This particular member of the family is a fantastic mostly sterile vining hybrid of passiflora alato – caerulea. It is hardy to 32 degrees and can be planted in garden zones 9-11. It is fairly common in nurseries but has no real common name. I have seen it sold as purple passion vine and most often just labeled botanically as Passilora spp. which is the common way of botanically classifying it under the genus and lumping all the species together without being specific.
Blooms and Fruit of Passion Flower Vine belotti :
Its mostly sterile habit makes it ideal as a non messy variety, I intentionally try to hand pollinate mine several times a year when other passion vines are blooming and still have yet to get any fruit although it is supposed to be a possibility. The blooms are large (to 4 inches across )with bright white sepals and pink petals alternating in a ray around the base of the flower, the filaments lay flat and are a bright purple blue making a striking contrast to the sepals and petals below. The blooms are very prolific on the plant all season long and attract lots of pollinators including our native Gulf Frittilary that, although they tend not to prefer it, can use it as a larval host plant for their caterpillars.
Foliage and Mature Size of the Passion Flower belotti:
Trilobed leaves are a bright green color and will remain on the plant over the winter season in zones 10-11 but may defoliate in winter time here in NE Florida and likely will not survive prolonged freezes without protection. The foliage on the plant is hardy to 32 degrees and the plant has survive winter temperatures of at least 27 degrees with seemingly no trouble in my home garden but that. You can also trim and bring the roots in to overwinter in the garden in cooler climate zones or pile pine straw or mulch around the stem to insulate the roots when a hard freeze is predicted.
The vines on belotti can reach to 15-20 ft long. When planting on a trellis remember to wind your vines sideways to get the most blooms and fullness on your trellis, it will go up all on its own but you will need to force it sideways and redirect growth back to the trellis that wants to stray to nearby shrubs trees trees or buildings as they grow aggressively during summertime when the temperatures and rainfall are high.
Exposure for Passion Flower Belotii in NE Florida Landscapes:
Plant these gems in a full sun or a partial shade location. Morning sun with afternoon shade or a morning shade with afternoon sun are both acceptable to still get plenty of blooms but this is a sun loving, heat loving vine!
Fruits of the Passion Flower Vine belotti in NE Florida Landscapes:
They are typically fruitless vines.
Soil Preference for Passion Flower belotti in NE Florida Landscapes:
Passion flowers are tolerant of a wide range of soils and are at home in NE Floridas sandy soil gardens without needing heavy amendments of compost or manures at the time of planting. In fact, passion flowers planted in high nitrogen rich soil environments may have a tendency toward excess leaf production at the expense of blooms so your native soil in the landscape is fine. Just Plant them and give them a nice thick mulch layer to regulate the soil moisture!
Want to see more Passionflower vines for NE Florida landscapes? Links below!
Blue Passion Flower Vine / Passiflora caerulea
Passion Flower Giant Grandilla / pas. quadralangularis
Maypop Purple passion flower / Passiflora incarnata
Purple Possum Passion Fruit / Passiflora edulis
Incense Purple Passion Flower / passiflora incarnata x cincinnata
