Passionvine
Passiflora incarnata
Otherworldly lavender-purple blooms July through September, plus sweet-tart edible fruit. Exclusive host for the gulf fritillary butterfly.
Typically 1 quart–3 gal · $17–$85 · final price at pickup
- Thu, Aug 138 AM – 4 PM
- Fri, Aug 148 AM – 4 PM
- Sat, Aug 158 AM – 2 PM
No native vine hosts more butterflies, produces edible fruit, AND stops a hillside from washing away. passionvine does all three.
Passionvine has the most otherworldly flower of any native vine: lavender-purple petals with a corona of radiating filaments that looks like it came from a different continent. It blooms heavily from July through September, and the blooms attract bumblebees, native bees, and the large, spectacular gulf fritillary butterfly, for which this vine is the exclusive larval host east of the Rockies. The edible yellow-green fruits ripen in late summer and early fall, sweet-tart and fragrant. It spreads by runners and can colonize a fence line or steep slope quickly, which makes it excellent for erosion control, and something to manage if you want contained growth. In the right spot, there is nothing in the native vine palette that combines wildlife value, edible fruit, and sheer floral spectacle the way passionvine does.
A nursery-grown plant, ready for the ground.
Healthy, container-grown passionvine propagated on-site at Hill House from regional genetics. Includes a one-page care card. We make every effort to supply plants as listed; occasionally we substitute a similar species of equal value.
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Average
- Mature size
- 5–20 ft · 36–96 in wide
- Bloom time
- July–September
- Bloom color
- Purple
- USDA zones
- 5–9
- Family
- Passifloraceae
- Native range
- Eastern and Central United States
Care notes for passionvine.
Full sun to part shade in average to dry soil. Extremely adaptable. Dies back to the ground in winter and re-emerges vigorously in spring. Allow spread if you want a colony; mow or edge to contain. No supplemental watering needed once established. Do not fertilize heavily. it pushes foliage over flowers.
Pairs well with these.
Same light, same soil, same wildlife. Janet's picks to plant alongside passionvine.
Or skip the guesswork.
Curated packages bundle complementary species for an instant habitat. One reservation, one pickup day, a printed layout map.
Short on Space Package
For gardeners who have an abundance of passion but are short on space, this package features tidy, upright, clump-forming natives that behave and function well in small spaces.
Shade Bed Package
Ferns, sedges, and woodland natives that thrive under existing trees.
Birder’s Paradise Package
For the avid bird watchers and budding ornithologists in our community, the Birder’s Paradise Package consists of species that Hill House Nursery staff and longtime native plant advocates such as Doug Tallamy consider ‘premier bird garden plants’.