Passion flower problems fall into one of three categories: environmental; biological; and your care. This article looks the variety of problems that can befall your passion flower climbers and explains what to do about each one.

Environmental issues that cause passion flower problems

Environmental problems include where you plant your passion flower, how much sun it gets and other situations in your garden. I have a complete article that details this. Please read Passiflora caerulea – growing and caring for passion flowers, especially the sections on location, light, soil and support. Basiclly they need good quality free draining soil and need enough sun, which usually means at least 5 hours of sun a day. Unfavourable growing conditions can lead to poor flowering, yellowing leaves and root rot in water logged soil. If grown outside, I like to plant hardy varieties such as passiflora caerulea in a sheltered position to help protect the plants from frost.

Biological issues caused by pests and diseases

Biological problems relate primarily to the pests and diseases that the passion flower is susceptible to. There aren’t many and most of them are common to many other plants. Once again, there’s a whole article on this which details the pests and diseases, describes how to identify each one and gives details on what to do about them. Common pests include aphids, mealy bugs and scale insect, this leads to sooty mould and then mildew.

And for further information, it helps to know about the different types of passion flowers. The section called Choosing your passion flower type in Passiflora caerulea – growing and caring for passion flowers has the information you need to know.

Your care

You care for your passion flower plant by watering and fertilising it. Check out the sections on this in Passiflora caerulea – growing and caring for passion flowers. Overwintering the plant is key to its multi-year survival, and I also discuss this in that article. There’s information there about some of the problems that may arise too.

While it isn’t necessary to prune passion flowers, you may find yourself wanting to do so. If your plant is a bit straggly and bare, if the stems or branches are diseased or have died or if you need to encourage regrowth, then you are faced with having to prune your plant. Get the details on how to do this from my article When and how to prune passion flowers.

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