Passion Flower - Passiflora caerulea

I have a sunny corner near the greenhouse, which is sheltered by a south-facing wall. At the base of the wall sit half a dozen old troughs, containing a few alpines, some bulbs and dwarf conifers, including the ‘Noah’s Ark’ juniper.

In this favoured position I tried Plumbago capensis, which lasted several years and would probably still be alive if I had given it winter protection. I next tried a passion flower, grown from a cutting given to me by a friend. It bloomed for years, trained along the wall – but several years ago I neglected it during a dry spell in early spring and lost it through drought. Oddly I had never watered it, as rain dripping from the guttering above had obviously been enough to keep it going.

To continue the saga my grandson decided to replace it as a Christmas gift. He ordered two different varieties, one for himself and one for me. When they arrived, one looked healthy, the other on its last legs – the latter was given to me with very little hope.

After trimming off the obviously dead stalks, one shoot piece remained. I put the pot on a window sill which had sunshine until after lunchtime and there it remained until early spring, when to my surprise and delight, a small green shoot appeared at the base.

When this reached a foot high and still very fragile, I thought I would pinch it out to allow side shoots perhaps to form. As it was so delicate I took at sharp pair of scissors and cut it down to about six inches. The top piece was quite turgid, so using a skewer I made a hole in the compost, trickled in some water and inserted the cutting, putting in a pinch of sterile sand. In a very short time it rooted. Since then I have rooted two more cuttings of the same variety Passiflora caerulea and it is now growing healthily at the base of the wall.