End of the Year Passion Vine

by Kathy Garvey

Passion vines are one of my favorite plants and I've gathered about eight varieties over the past few years. (There are at least 500 of them.) I have one that's a magnificent red with a distinct crown and tends to bloom very rarely. It was in bloom this month! To wrap up the year, I'm playing with my images of it in Photoshop. Here are two before and afters.

Before: One of my red passion vines - I don't remember its name but it blooms very rarely.

After: I like adding brushes and filters to my photos in Photoshop.

Before: The crowns on passion vines are other-worldly!

After: Celebrating the beauty by repeating it.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year! May you enjoy all the things you are passionate about!

A Passion for Passion Vines

There's no doubt I have a passion for Passion Vines. I especially love Incarnata, the beautiful purple one with curly tendrils that grows wild here in Florida shown below.

But over the past few years I've been planting other varieties and I currently have six of the seven in bloom. Below is Lady Margaret, a beautiful red one that I bought as a skinny little four inch sprout several years ago that now takes up half the fence in the yard and must have over 100 blooms at a time.

Here's a little view of the others. Below is the latest to show itself: Vitifolia. After that is Sweet Sunrise, followed by Cerulea and then Jara.

These flowers are an artist's dream. I haven't taken on the challenge of painting one yet. But below is an example of "Jara" all done up with filters, brushes and a little text in Photoshop CS6.

I have loads of photos if any artists out there want some to paint or to play with in Photoshop just let me know which variety and I'll send you high res.  And watch for affordable prints at our upcoming Pieces of 8 pre-Christmas sale on December 8th in West Melbourne.