Passion Flower, Passiflora, Caerulea,

Caerulea, Passion Flower  Biennial rustic climbing plant, producing abundant vegetation.  Round flowers blossom from spring through summer.  Extremely fast growing, hardy passionflower producing egg shaped orange fruits with deep red, edible pulp, although not as tasty as the purple passion fruit. Flowers are ornate, multi-colored, with a minty scent much like the fruit of the pineapple guava.

Propagation:  Almost always grown from seeds. Bottom heating the seeds at 70-80F can result in germination at 1-2 weeks, at lower temperatures seeds can take up to 10 weeks to germinate.  

Germination Info:  It is recommended to pretreat Passiflora seeds before planting. They contain a hard seed coat and are very slow to sprout. There are various pretreatment methods, but the simplest is to soak the seeds for 24-48 hours in warm to the touch water, just prior to planting. Optionally, seeds can be lightly scarified with sand paper to provide some permeation on the seed coat.  Once pretreated, plant seeds 1/2-1" deep in moist, sterile soil. Keep soil temperature consistent at 70-85F, with some day/variation in this range. Cool soils will significantly delay seed germination time if not inhibit germination altogether. Standard room temperature can be too cool for proper germination. 

Estimated germination time under optimal conditions: Passiflora caerulea germination tends to be slow and erratic. 2-8 months, but well worth the time.