Blue Passionflower

How to grow Blue Passionflower

Written by the GardenDecoded editorial team · Last reviewed 21 July 2026 · Written for UK gardens · How we research our guidance

Planting

Plant in late spring against a sheltered south- or west-facing wall, with wires or trellis for the tendrils to grip. Avoid overfeeding — rich soil produces a mass of leaf and few flowers. In colder or inland gardens, mulch the crown thickly in autumn.

Pruning

Prune in early spring once you can see which growth has survived the winter, cutting damaged stems back to healthy wood and shortening side shoots to two or three buds. It flowers on the current season's growth, so spring pruning does not cost you flowers. Thin congested growth in summer if it becomes a tangle.

Propagation

Semi-ripe cuttings with a heel in summer root reasonably well with bottom heat. Seed from ripe fruit germinates but is slow and erratic.

Pests and diseases

Cucumber mosaic virus causes distorted, mottled leaves and is untreatable — remove affected plants. Under glass, red spider mite and whitefly are common. Outdoors, the usual problem is simply winter dieback rather than disease.

Value to wildlife

The complex flowers are visited by bees, though they are less generally useful to native insects than a hedgerow climber.

Notes

In a hard winter the top growth is often killed to ground level; the roots usually survive in southern and coastal gardens and reshoot in late spring, so do not dig it up in April. The orange egg-shaped fruits are edible in the technical sense but insipid and full of seed.

This guidance was researched and written by GardenDecoded — see our editorial policy for how guides are checked and reviewed.

Other names for this plant

These names have all been used for Passiflora caerulea but are no longer the accepted name. You may still meet them on old labels, in books, or in nursery catalogues.

Others in Passiflora