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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

#Passiflora racemosa ‘Buzios’ is a particular Autumn highlight with its racemes of lovely pink flowers and colourful balloon like buds dangling from the greenhouse roof.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

🌱 With a couple of passionflower talks coming up in the next month or so I wanted to illustrate how they grow up into rainforest canopies then flop at the top triggering side shoots and flowering. I grew a P. caerulea up the seating area into the wisteria. It worked!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

🌱 #Passiflora racemosa ‘Buzios’ with its glorious racemes of pink flowers colourful both before the flower opens and after it closes. An autumn delight! It is more correctly P. princeps now, a shame as racemosa is good descriptive name, and might be a naturally occurring hybrid!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

🌱 Here’s one for those of you who, like me, find perlite an unpleasant medium to work with. Rosy Hardy was on Gardeners’ World a few weeks ago with an alternative. Here’s what happened when we tried it out!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

🌱 A first flower from the huge #Passiflora ‘Diva’ - a gorgeous hardy polyploid hybrid from David Costen. It took a long time to flower as the bud just kept getting bigger rather than opening. Plenty of buds to come!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

🌱 A brilliant evening visit! Goodleigh Horticultural Society arrived as brugmansias were beginning to pump out scent.As darkness fell, a swarm of convolvulus hawk-moths appeared drawn by scented heads of hedychium ‘Elgar’ In a year when we’ve felt a bit jaded it’s great to be reminded why we do this

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

🌱 Tomorrow we have our first ever evening opening. I felt the need to sort the pond. It has suffered from algal growth so I cleared it by hand &put some black dye in to reduce light availability. It really makes the reflections stand out. Last pic shows what happens to visitors who don’t behave!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

It’s a very new hybrid. I acquired cutting material in January and now have a couple of substantial plants. It has proved hardy in the Pacific Northwest West of the US in similar conditions to here so we will see when it goes out next May. Could be a real game changer!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

🌱 So here it is at last! First flower from Shawn Mattison’s hybrid #passiflora ‘Miri’. It is similar to P. ‘Anastasia’ and like Anastasia it has P. gritensis and P. caerulea in its parentage but is much more resilient, being hardy and not wilting in extreme heat.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

🌱 A number of garden visitors this year have asked us how we water a big garden full of thirsty tropical plants. The answer is that we use rainwater for pretty much everything except misting (legionella risks!). And this is how we do it!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

🌱 With duller &rainier days the white night flowering #passiflora galbana stays open longer into the morning & P. lanuginosa keeps its early flowers open longer. I love the softer quality of light we get this time of year, & the passionflowers respond really well, triggering flowering everywhere

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

From across the Atlantic I’ve always been amazed at the fuss over ‘socialised medicine’ in a country where ‘socialised policing’ funded through taxation is the norm.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I heard the same thing, but I suspect it is like P. incarnata and is hardy but emerges very late then flowers in the autumn.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

We have tried growing it outside, but it died. It is more sheltered here so I will try again.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

🌱 Another exciting development. The beautiful scented #passiflora ‘Fata Confetto’ has been blooming away in the new raised bed where it was bedded out in May. It has about 30 fruit developing on it and I’m told they make good eating. Can’t wait!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

🌱 #Passiflora ‘Purple Passion’ is from the same cross as the better known P. ‘Amethyst’ only with paler flowers. Easy and free flowering it is perfect for bedding out or for the display bench. Needs winter protection to keep it above freezing. Parent to our hybrid, P. ‘GK2’

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

It’s the first one I ever bought and still one of my favourites. Enjoy!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

🌱 #Passiflora pentaschista, closely related to P. arida and with ‘love in a mist’ bracts similar to those of P. foetida and P. lanuginosa. It currently has a ripening fruit (not a good one for eating) and more buds. You have to catch it early in the day before the flowers close again.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

🌱 It’s pink passionflower day. P. princeps ‘Buzios’ and P. sanguinolenta. Buzios is pretty in bud and after the flowers have closed. P. princeps is the revised name for P. racemosa as it had been found & named that a couple of weeks earlier (over 200 years ago). I prefer racemosa, more descriptive

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Yes, quite similar to Fata itself. It’s a very promising hybrid!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

🌱 As the days start to shorten and we begin to count the shopping days till Christmas (currently 109) the passionflowers respond with a late flush of flowering! P. ‘Victoria’ P. ‘Pretty Tina’ P. x allardii P. x belotii P. ‘Monika Fischer’

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

🌱 Here are 4 hybrids we have raised. Two of them we know both parents for and two are open pollinated. GK2 & Vivacious Velvet have proven hardy in sheltered places around the garden. The other two are more recent crosses but have enough hardiness in their ancestry to suggest they may well be hardy.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

🌱 Very excited! This is #passiflora ‘Miri’, a hybrid by Shawn Mattison. It came as cutting material in early January and I managed to root it. It should now be very free flowering. Flowers are fluffy, big and pinky-purple. A bit like P. ‘Anastasia’ but, and here’s the best thing, it’s HARDY!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

🌱 This is one of my favourite plants from the main tropics border. This is canna ‘General Eisenhower’ although it might originally have been ‘La France’. It is currently being sold as ‘Tropicana Black’. A stunning upright to 7ft plant and perfect partner for variegated arundo donax.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

🌱 First proper flower from #passiflora lanuginosa. This pretty little hybrid is a close relative of P. foetida. Could be an interesting species for crossing!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

🌱 Today’s 2nd banana story. Just 2 weeks before the first group is due to visit here’s another irresponsible last minute change. The 7ft musa basjoo has been rescued from relative obscurity and planted on the bank as part of the new bed we are calling ‘Banarnia’.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

🌱 Today’s first banana story. Update on the flower on miss ‘Rajapuri’ Flower opening and bananas developing!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

🌱 It’s neck and neck! Which of these #passiflora I grew from seed in January is going to flower first? P. pentaschista or P. lanuginosa The next few days will tell!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

I agree, but it will have to grow through something more free flowering. I’m trying out some combinations for next year!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

🌱 I’m still making my mind up about this one. #Passiflora ‘Beauty of Hannover’ (and yes it appears to have been registered with a spelling mistake!) is hardy, very striking & feels as though it should be a good partner to P. ‘Snow Queen’ but it seems quite shy flowering. We will see!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Thank you. I have leant a lot over the years from proper experts! They are a challenging but extremely rewarding group of plants to grow. I’ll be posting flowers of all these ones when they do eventually flower 🤞

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

🌱 A quick video on how to get your exotic passionflower to produce flowers. This video features: P. lanuginosa, P. umbilicata, P. pentaschista, Open pollinated hybrid of P. racemosa ‘Buzios’, Open pollinated hybrid of P. ‘Annette’, And a trowel being knocked off a stool (audio only)

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

🌱 The very lovely #passiflora ‘Pretty Tina’, a hybrid of P. tarapotina and P. caerulea by Martin Drews. After an early burst of flowering it went into a bit of a decline, but is just getting going again.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

🌱 Using offcuts from our bamboo structure in the back garden and rope left over from the original, we made this swag thing for the rose we rescued from Dawn’s dad’s garden. It will also hide the new tanks going behind the wall to raise our rainwater storage capacity from 3000 to 4500 litres.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

🌱 #Passiflora ‘Fata Confetto’ is one of the best. It is almost hardy, so perfectly suited for bedding out, easy to propagate, beautifully scented and the fruit are edible. A hybrid from Maurizio Vecchia.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Tends to flower as begins to get dark, so really comes into its own Sept>Nov. Usually closed again by 10.30 next day, later if it’s dull. It has the racemosa propagation problem (roots but no shoots) but I’ve got some on the go that were pinched out a week before. Let me know if you want one

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

🌱 #Passiflora ‘Annette’ is a night flowering delight. It is P. ‘Kew Gardens’ back crossed with P. racemosa*. *now known as P. princeps

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

🌱 It’s been a while since I did a video so here we are. A bit long for direct on here so it’s a link to YouTube. So is this a disaster, or a positive learning experience? You decide! youtu.be/SaC-Ra5giHU?...

youtu.be

18 July 2026

YouTube video by Steve Morgan

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

🌱 Quick update on banana progress. If this is musa rajapuri, as it was sold to us about 8 years ago, then the bananas will be edible. Watching this will become an obsession! Patience needed!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

🌱 Today’s passionflower is one of our absolute favourites. This is P. x belotii (a hybrid of P. caerulea with P. alata) - large flowers & a sensational scent. The first exotic passionflower we got back in 1996. This one thrives in the greenhouse or bedded out for summer. 5 flowers open today!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

🌱 Something relaxing for a Tuesday evening. Our hardy passionflower hybrid P. ‘GK2’ on the fence behind the greenhouse.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

🌱 About a week ago I posted a photo of our musa rajapuri with a smaller leaf and a bulge in the stem. I predicted that it would next throw out a very small leaf as a prelude to the flower emerging. And here is that mini leaf!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

🌱 This is #passiflora lanuginosa, which is very similar to P. foetida - hence love-in-a-mist fuzziness around the bud. This was grown from seed sown in late December so at only 6 months old it is developing flower buds on its giant hoop based on two 4ft canes and 2mm aluminium wire across the top.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

🌱 Passiflora triloba producing a leaf that lives up to its name! Seed grown then grafted to P. caerulea rootstock making it much less fussy about temperatures. Its flowers are spectacular & one day we might see them (it needs the stem to grow very long first, so a few more times round the supports!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

🌱 Here’s #passiflora ‘Vivacious Velvet’, a hardy hybrid we raised by crossing P. ‘Domingo Martins’ with P. caerulea. It’s similar to P. ‘Purple Haze’ and P. ‘Purple Rain’. Currently rampaging along the fence with its numerous well scented flowers.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

🌱 Well this looks exciting. For the first time in 10 years our musa ‘Rajapuri’ is showing early signs of flowering. If it is genuinely ‘Rajapuri’ then it will produce edible fruit. The clues are a smaller leaf emerging and the first signs of a bulge as the flower is pushed up inside the stem.

To my right (your left) is the huge musa ‘Rajapuri’ to my left the single stem of musa ‘Helen’ and then the well coloured leaves of a form of musa sikkimensis.

The emerging stem is quite small. The next should be very small followed by the flower!

The flower is forced up the tube of the pseudo stem bulging as it goes.

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

🌱 #Passiflora cocuyensis ssp ‘Nova’. I love it nearly as much as the red spider mites do!

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Devon Subtropical Garden @devonsubtropical.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

🌱 And now for something a little bit different. Still a passionflower but with copious little pink flowers and healthy looking bat shaped leaves. Seems very resistant to red spider mites although mealy bugs can be an issue (easily blasted off with a sprayer). Can be bedded out for summer.

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