The Letter of Love

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For years I have admired this exotic flower, yet never had one of my own to enjoy until last summer. Just picking up a few things at the local Super Market and happend out in the Garden Center. I do this all the time because this store has some odd plants out there from time to time, and I really love odd plants and the challenge of growing them. This time I found the last of a parcel of Passion Flower plants, at $6.98 I swooped up the last 4 of them. They were getting sortof scraggly on their little trellis hoops, so people were just passing them by for lack of noticing what they are…Just my luck!

Of course they require a special mix of soil, so I thought containers would be the way to go. I found 2 square plastic pots (.85 cf.), and then being that they are vines I needed some sort of trellis action. I had to go to another store for lava sand and found these 2 trellises which fit perfectly in the pots as you can see in this picture:

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When I arrived home and began researching all of the growing instructions I accidentally found out some cool things in relation to Jesus…Some of the symbolism is quite over the top if you ask me, but other bits I found to be inspiring enough to share along with the things I learned growing this plant. There are more than 500 species of this genus in the Passifloraceae family
The name “Passion Flower” has been given by some to be connected to the shape of stamens likened to loaves of bread used in the Passover and the 3 floating parts over the loaves are like 3 fishes..(or 3 nails.) There are many other religious symbolisms regarding this flower,however this one was the one I see most fitting to the Gospel. And for all the people out there that think that the Lord God can only be found by reading the Bible, look again..The Good News of our Savior Jesus Christ is written all over the earth.. 

If a caterpillar can one day be transformed into a butterfly and live as a higher dimensional being, then so can we!!! Invision the possibilities!!  

Getting a more intimate knowledge of this phenomenal message from God is just one more thing I love about working in the garden.

The Passionflower has another distinction that is even deeper into our life in Christ bring it to a full circle. That is that this whole plant is the larval host for the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly, among others. Here in Fort Worth this has so far been the only lep that uses it in my garden. The whole life of a butterfly is relative to our own being born again. The caterpillar has to curl up and die so the butterfly can live in turn. The butterfly can never go back once they’ve felt the wind under their wings.

When a Gulf Fritillary ecloses from it’s chrysalis it’s wings are all shrunken and it’s body is engorged with fluids and a little cast off. The cast off is one emittion of watery fluid, shortly followed by a red blood fluid. When the Savior gave up the ghost from Him flowed water and blood… by which we are also born in Him.

These are some insights I have come to understand from growing this Passionflower, These are my opinions based on a faith that has never let me down, by knowing God wouldn’t ever let me down. I hear Him in all creation, some places just a little sharper than others. lol. I am very grateful!
This close up of a bloom shows one that will bloom tomorrow directly above the opened bloom, and yes they only bloom once and then close back up to make the fruit while being hidden inside. (Relating again to Christ after His crucifixion was placed in a tomb.) To tell if a bud has bloomed already just look at the tip of the bud, if you can see the 3 stamens poking out they have already bloomed and are making seed/fruit. At this time in the season I prefer to snip them off after they have bloomed to encourage more blooms to come. Besides, the Fritillaries will eat it before it can fruit. Oh, and the fragrance is amazing…sortof spicy like anise, with a light fruity overtone…Absolutly brilliant!!For years until the Passionflower, I only raised Black Swallowtails because of growing an herb garden with their larval host as a few of the herbs, (Parsley, Dill, and Fennel). Since then I have been blessed to expand the larval hosts to accomodate over 12 species of butterflies. It never gets old or burdensome. Each release is more beautiful than the last.Please feel free to ask a question, add to my information, or make a comment