A gardener’s MISCELLANY

This week it’s:

Don’t pass on a passion flower!

Amazing facts about this incredible plant

PASSION flower blooms are, let’s say, a little unusual. I think they look rather like the gears and cogs of a floral stopwatch! I guess it is no coincidence that passion flowers are known as ‘clock flowers’ in Israel, and ‘clock plant’ in Japan. The blooms are definitely 3D: a plate of simple petals gives way to a colourful sizzle of coronal filaments, out of which radiate the stamens in a satellite-like formation. So let’s take a closer look at this strange group of plants.

◼ Most of us are familiar with the common passion flower, . It is the hardiest species for our British gardens, and normally produces flowers with white petals and sepals, but is named , meaning ‘blue’, because of its striking blue-tipped corona filaments.