Passion Fruits and other Delights

So for 2 years, I've been babying, growing, and loving this tiny little passion fruit plant (Passiflora Edulis) It started as a tiny little two leaved plant, which I trained up a 5 inch trellis, until it outgrew that, and we moved it outside to about a 6 foot trellis around a year ago. I think at that point, once it set root in its native Florida soil with lots of fresh sun and water, it absolutely took off! Quickly outgrowing its trellis, we built a larger wood one into the wall. At this point, it has outgrown even that, reaching up towards the roof, in a few weeks more I imagine it will indeed, be creeping its way across the top of the roof. But before that happens we plan to get one of those arch trellises and train it over it. I never ever imagined it would get so large and happy.

But for all its ginourmousness, it still hadn't flowered, I had begun to fret I'd bought a dud. A big glorified vine. Until a couple of weeks back, while weeding, I looked up and saw a single solitary fruit. Now I know they take several weeks, even well over a month, to ripen, and can not be picked before then. Then they rapidly change colors within a few days from green to deep purple, yellow, or orange, depending on which sort you have, and drop to the ground. Mine will be purple.

So today I decided to take a peak to see if it has begun changing colors, and lo!! It is still there, massive at this point that I dare say its reaching the size of a small mellon, but still green...

This is the big one, the first one I found, over a month old now,
and showing no signs of being ready to ripen, but absolutely HUGE!

And scattered all over the vine were dozens and dozens of flower buds, and closed flowers (they close at night, and being that I checked early in the morning, they hadn't reopened yet) Not only that, I counted 9 (that I could see) fruits growing!!!


Little adorable, green fruits, covered in tender sweet baby fruit fuzz =D You can only imagine my glee. I could have been looking at a basket full of kittens if you went by my state of cute overload.


As if the nature-at-its-cutest could find no end, I even found an adorable little red ladybug who had decided one of the buds would make for a perfect napping place. I am sure she was just as happy as me to be surrounded by such pretty flowers.


In celebration, I made scones from scratch (being as you can't buy them prepared, at least not proper English ones) in the US. Topped them with butter, strawberry preserves, and clotted cream. mmmmmmmm.