Edible fruit. Sold here as a fruit-bearing plant grown for its harvest of purple passion fruit, not as an ornamental.The Passiflora edulis, or purple passion fruit, is the true edible passion flower, a vigorous evergreen climber that delivers both the exotic, almost otherworldly blooms the genus is famous for and a crop of delicious purple fruit. This is the species behind the passion fruit on supermarket shelves, and growing your own passion fruit plant is one of the most rewarding ways to bring a taste of the tropics into a sheltered British garden, conservatory or sunny patio. Each flower is a small masterpiece: a wheel of white petals surrounding a halo of crimped purple-and-blue filaments, with the prominent central column of stamens and styles that gives the passion flower its name. Where summers are long and warm, these blooms are followed by egg-sized fruits that ripen from green to a deep wrinkled purple, their fragrant pulp packed with golden, aromatic seeds. How and where to grow Passiflora edulis is a tender exotic, so position is everything. Give it the warmest, sunniest, most sheltered spot you can find, ideally scrambling up a south or west-facing wall, fence or trellis where its tendrils can grip. It enjoys fertile, moisture-retentive but free-draining soil and responds to generous watering and a high-potash feed through the growing season. Vigorous tendril climber to around 4-6 m Exotic white-and-purple flowers from summer into autumn Edible purple fruit in a warm season Ideal for a large patio container that can be moved under cover Because it is hardy only to around 5C, the passiflora edulis in most of the UK is best treated as a patio plant: stood outside in full sun for summer, then brought into a frost-free greenhouse, conservatory or bright porch before the first frosts. Only in the very mildest, frost-free coastal gardens will it survive outdoors year-round. Container growing also keeps this naturally rampant climber within bounds and makes the all-important winter protection straightforward. Whether you are after the spectacular flowers or dreaming of home-grown fruit, this passion flower is a wonderful talking-point plant. Every Passiflora edulis we supply is a strong, well-rooted specimen, carefully grown and ready to climb away in its first warm season with you.
