Introducing the Louisiana Passion Flower Guild
We are a non-profit, small hobbyist group dedicated to the awareness and enjoyment of the passion flower.
Life comes in the strangest ways.
A few years ago, I was in a hot Texas city, San Antonio, on an even hotter mid-summer afternoon. I stumbled into a lovely restaurant, (The Clean Plate; alas now defunct), where a delicious organic farm to table meal was completed with a fabulous selection of thoughtful treats. My choice, on that sweltering day: homemade ice cream.
But it was more special than that. It was vanilla passion flower ice cream, and the sweet, creamy, cold handcrafted goodness was topped with the spindly corona filaments of a purple passion flower, sourced from the thick vine the owner was growing on the fence surrounding the courtyard where I sat. It was my first up close introduction to this strange and alluring bloom. And, slightly sweet, with the faintest anise flavor, it was the perfect complement, in color, taste, form, and idea, to the dessert.
Fast forward to summer 2017, when J and I were out foraging for an entirely different treasure and we happened on a small copse (later revealed to be the edge of a large one) of indigenous, Louisiana passionflowers.
The rest, I suppose, has been a wild, tangled, sometimes beautiful, oft frustrating, always unpredictable love affair with this most compelling of plants. A story of life, in one small way, at its best.
I hope you join us in celebrating this little passion; watch it grow, and join in.
~CB.
About the Guild
Who We Are
The Louisiana Passion Flower Guild was formally established in 2018 by CB and J. We found the local indigenous pasion flower rather by accident, and it’s been a lovely voyage of discovery since. These complex, fussy, elegant, lusty plants have a rich history in botany, art, design, and decor. And they are quirky delights to propagate, grow, and coax into flower and fruit.
Neither of us claims to be an expert on these plants. We both have very different day jobs. But it seems like the passiflora have fallen somewhat out of the botanical and floral limelight; where orchids reign sensually supreme and roses carry the prim baroque cultural mantle.
The guild was set up as a vehicle to “re-introduce” the passion flower, I suppose. To promote it. To identify locations of wild copses, and stories of the hunt for this elusive quarry. To collectively share and reveal best practices on propagation and cultivation. To celebrate images of the plant and its beautiful blooms, and to glimpse into the past at the long artistic tradition. And last, to explore some of the botanical and scientific facts of these wonderful little wild beasts.
~CB.
Locating Wild Louisiana Passiflora
See the page dedicated to locating indigenous Louisiana passion flowers.
Propagation
See the page dedicated to uprooting, cutting, and starting passion flowers.
Plant Cultivation
See the page dedicated to best Louisiana passion flower growing practices.
Passion flower art, design, decor
Please visit the LPFG page dedicated to our discoveries of passion flowers in antiques, the arts, design, and decor.
Contact
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