Culling doesn’t always have to mean processing an animal, sometimes it can mean selling. However, for the most part, it should probably mean freezer camp. Otherwise, you are just passing your problems off onto some other unsuspecting person. When you are able to start looking for reasons to cull your animals rather than excuses to keep them, you will make more rapid progress forward with your breeding goals.

While culling is an unpleasant task, you should not feel bad about using under performing animals to feed your family.

Mother Nature has no qualms about culling under performing and unlucky animals. She typically does so in extremely unpleasant or gruesome ways. Our domestic stock on the other hand is exchanging an endless supply of feed, shelter, medical care, and protection from predators for one very bad day. If you process your own animals on your farm, most likely, their very bad day will be over before they even know its a bad day. It is a much more pleasant existence and ending than being torn apart by wolves or staving to death.

So how do we know what animals to cull?

Firstly, culling decisions should be made based upon animal performance data. Not emotions. The more data you keep on your flock the easier it is to make good culling decisions. However, the quick down and dirty way to decide is to ask yourself “Would I want a whole flock of this animal?”. If you wouldn’t then they should probably be a potential cull. And, you definitely should not keep offspring from them.

To give you some ideas of the sorts of things you should think about, here are some specific reasons we feel an animal should be considered for culling. This list isn’t all inclusive, but it is a starting point if you are new to the concept of selecting animals to keep or cull.

Reproduction failure of any kind is top of the list.

Small ruminants that don’t get bred and produce live lambs/kids to weaning aren’t profitable. Cull animals that fail to get bred, or those that get bred late compared to everyone else. Get rid of ewes that have lambing difficulties, those that are bad mothers, etc. Your ewes should be capable of getting bred and producing a weaned lamb without any help or interference from you. They should NOT need assistance lambing. The should NOT need to be forced to allow their lambs to nurse. If an ewe isn’t reliably producing viable offspring and making your job easy. Cull her! Replace her with a ewe that is working hard for you.

You should also cull ewes with bad udders, even if they do the rest of breeding and lambing ok. Things like poor confirmation, insufficient milk and mastitis are all excellent reasons to cull. These things are all heritable. Ewes with bad udders are likely to lose lambs to starvation. Chronic mastitis is contagious and can be passed to ewe lambs from their dam, and also to other ewes in the flock. If your ewe doesn’t have enough milk to feed her lambs, that bottle lamb is a liability, and likely won’t have enough milk either. The disease OPP can show up as udders without milk. Cull your problems so they don’t spread.

Cull ewes who are bad mothers.

Your ewes should be highly maternal and not need assistance feeding or raising lambs. If they are not, they are likely to lose lambs or to wean inferior lambs. It’s heritable. Don’t keep ewes or offspring from those who are bad mothers. Bad mothers make more bad mothers. Keep ewes who you 100% trust to lamb on their own completely unsupervised at 2am. They’re the ones who are profitable. They are the ones who allow you to sleep at night.

Cull animals with poor growth and performance.

Keep lambs that have the best growth rates. Cull ewes that consistently produce underperforming offspring. You should also cull animals that fail to maintain weight. If the majority of your animals are in excellent body condition, and a few aren’t despite eating the same diet all other variables being equal. Cull them. Because again, these traits are highly heritable. It doesn’t matter what the lack of thriftiness is due to, you don’t want it.

There is a right way and a wrong way to determine animal performance.

You cannot directly compare a singleton to a triplet, or the performance of a ewe lamb to the performance of a 3-year old ewe. Why? Because that singleton is going to look the biggest and best lamb almost every time, however it is typically from an underperforming ewe! An ewe that produced and weaned triplets is working far harder for you (and will likely be much thinner) than that lazy fat ewe feeding a single lamb.

Lambs should be evaluated using adjustment factors. They can be found online. Ewes should be evaluated based upon the pounds of lambs weaned as a percentage of her body weight. This allows you to look at both lamb and ewe performance fairly. That way you are not inadvertently selecting for underperforming ewes based on physical appearance. This is a topic we will delve deeper into in a future article.

Another reason you should consider an animal for culling is poor confirmation (and health issues).

A poorly shaped animal is going to have trouble being functional. For example, sheep with improperly lined up jaws will not be able to eat efficiently. Very narrow animals may have trouble lambing and will not be able to carry a good udder. Crooked legs may hinder mobility. Your confirmation doesn’t have to be show-ring perfect, but it does need to meet a minimum threshold of functional. If it doesn’t, don’t breed it.

Along with that, if you have animals who have repeated health issues. Get rid of them. All they’re doing is costing you time, stress, and money. Chronically sore feet are a valid reason to cull. So is repeated bouts of pneumonia. Or an animal that keeps getting eye infections. If an animal is causing problems and they’re not something you’d want every animal in your flock to have. Cull them.

One of the biggest health issues every producer will face are parasites. They are something you absolutely can and should cull for. Rams in particular should not be parasite magnets. About 20% of your animals carry 80% of your parasite burden, and are shedding 80% of the parasites on your pastures. Get rid of animals that consistently require extra deworming. You and your entire flock will benefit. Besides, animals that are constantly trying to die on you aren’t going to be productive or profitable anyways. Those with consistently poor FAMACHA scores should be culled.

Sometimes culling is about economics and management not flaws.

Everyone has a limited amount of space for keeping animals. Maybe you need to downsize for a bad winter or a drought. In that scenario, keep the animals with your best genetics and cull the rest. Rebuild your flock off those superior genetics later. Bear in mind, your youngest animals should have your best genetics.

Along with this, at some point it will make sense to cull older animals for no other reason than due to their age they are no longer competitive. These animals may have been your best performers a few years ago. However, due to age or the increased performance of your younger animals they have been eclipsed. It is ok to cull them without feeling guilty. Evaluate the performance of older animals to determine whether you are better off culling them to make space in your flock for younger animals.

The last reason we want to touch on is temperament and behavior.

This is one that you absolutely should cull for. Unfortunately, it is also something that most people don’t cull for until it comes back to bite them in the butt. For some reason, temperament is something that a lot of people feel like they shouldn’t cull for. However, you absolutely should!

We firmly believe that life is too short to keep wild, mean or dangerous animals around. Temperament is very heritable, and one bad animal has the ability to set the tone for your entire flock. It doesn’t matter how many other positive traits an animal has going for it. If its temperament is terrible do the world a service and send that animal to freezer camp. A ram can put you in the hospital in the blink of an eye. Don’t keep one who is constantly threatening to do so.

You should also cull for bad behavior aka the troublemakers. If you have a sheep that will not respect your fence and is repeatedly a problem, get rid of them now! They will teach the other animals to behave poorly. Animals that are overly wild or aggressive or harmful to other animals should also go. If an animal is costing you extra time and labor expense due to behavior, they are going to negatively impact your bottom line and stress level long term. They aren’t worth the headache.

The bottom line – to make progress on your breeding goals, be purposely ruthless with your culling.

Ask yourself if you’d want to clone this animal or not. Stop looking for excuses to keep an animal and start looking for reasons to cull. It is just as ok to cull ewes as rams. They all make delicious additions to your table, and are fulfilling their purpose, and you don’t have to feel guilty about using them to feed your family.

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Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Culling, An Uncomfortable But Necessary Part Of Breeding first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

If you are like most people with gardens and livestock, you have hoses everywhere. You probably spend a lot of time dragging hoses around. And then you spend equally as much time going back to find out what your hose is stuck on. You may also spend an annoying chunk of time going back and forth moving hoses bit by bit to keep them from dragging into your beds and crushing your plants.

We tried using various stakes and sturdy perennials planted on corners to try to remedy the problem. Typically, the plants end up getting damaged anyway. Stakes will keep the hoses where they belong, but hoses tend to be sticky. Hoses tend to get stuck on the stakes and don’t really pull around them negating most of the perceived benefit. Stakes can also be offensively obtrusive to your view and inconvenient to move.

If you start messing with hoses, it becomes pretty obvious that you really needed rollers to effectively keep the hose moving freely. Finally, it dawned on us what the perfect inexpensive solution to our problems was. Why did we not think of this sooner?!

Pipe pieces over rebar pieces make the perfect hose corners.

They create simple, inexpensive rollers to keep your hose moving. We opted to use PVC pipe as we already had scraps of it sitting around so it cost nothing. However, you could also use metal pipes for a cleaner more attractive look. These hose corners are effective and very easy to pull out to move if you need to.

To make them you will need short pieces of rebar. The exact length required will depend on how sturdy your soil is and what you’re pulling against them. Ours are about 3 feet long and pounded about 18” into the ground. Then you need a piece of pipe that will fit around the rebar and spin freely. If the rebar isn’t study enough for the amount of force you are pulling with you could use the same concept with a larger pipe around a T-post.

These hose corners can be placed at the edge of beds, corners of buildings or anywhere else your hose tends to hang up or jump to places you don’t want it. Though they aren’t perfect, we find that they work very well and reduce the frustration of watering significantly. The main problem we find is that they work best if you are pulling your hoses around them at a 45 degree angle not a 90 degrees. Nonetheless, they improve our quality of life significantly!

If you’d like to hear about more tricks and tips we use to make our lives easier, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Protect Your Plants With Functional DIY Hose Corners first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

The idea behind flushing is that you can maximize your lambing rate if your ewes are on a positive plane of nutrition prior to and during breeding season. What we mean by this is that your ewes are actively gaining weight. In this scenario, their bodies think times are good and resources are plentiful. Therefore, it is safe and beneficial to have higher reproductive rates. This results in higher ovulation rates, conception rates, and less early pregnancy embryo losses.

Depending on the condition and management of your flock, flushing your ewes can increase their reproductive rates by 10-20%.

That’s a significant production increase for a fairly minimal investment in flushing. And, as you probably know, your reproduction rate is one of the main driving factors in whether a small ruminant operation is successful or not. 10-20% more lambs to sell is definitely economically motivating!

So how do we flush our sheep? Flushing is simple and easy to accomplish. All you need to do is increase your sheep’s feed levels for 2-4 weeks prior to breeding season and about a month into breeding season. You want to feed them prior to breeding so that they ovulate as many eggs as possible. Then, you feed them for the first month of gestation to reduce embryo losses and increase implantation rates.

Most embryo losses occur during the first month of gestation. So you are feeding them to make sure the ewe’s body thinks it has the resources to support extra embryo. This reduces the number she aborts. After about a month losses are unlikely, and you can return to maintenance level feeding until the requirements of the fetuses increase late gestation.

For flushing to be effective rather than a waste of money certain criteria needs to be met.

Firstly, your sheep need to be in an appropriate body condition score (BCS). Flushing works best on ewes in moderate condition (BCS of 2-3). Very thin ewes don’t respond well to flushing (BCS 1), neither do fat ones (BCS 4-5). If your ewes are maintained at a high level of nutrition with a high BCS throughout the year they aren’t going to respond to flushing. Ewes that are too thin are too busy literally starving to be able to reproduce well. If you don’t know how to body condition score (BCS) you animals, please refer back to our article on the topic. It is an important skill to have.

Additionally, flushing is best used for mature ewes. It is not as effective on ewe lambs as they should already be on a higher plane of nutrition to promote growth. Ewe lambs also do not possess the udder development and frame size for high numbers of lambs. Their bodies know this and won’t produce as many lambs as mature ewes regardless of how you feed.

And finally, flushing works best if you are trying to breed early, late, or out of season. You will get less or no response to flushing if you are breeding during peak breeding season. This is when your animals will be more likely to ovulate at their maximum rates anyways.

As you are making decisions, remember flushing won’t overcome genetic constraints.

It will just allow you to maximize your genetic potential. If your ewes do not have the genetic potential to produce quads, no amount of feeding will induce them to do so. However, a large portion of the difference in animal performance between flocks is environmental not genetic. Just because a flock of sheep can survive and reproduce on a low input diet doesn’t mean they are meeting their potential on that diet. You will not know if you are leaving money on the table until you try improving nutrition.

Now that we have discussed what flushing is and when its appropriate to use. How do we flush our ewes?

Ewes can be flushed on any high quality feed you have available. It is often done by feeding 1/2-1lb of grain/head. However, it can be done equally as effectively using high quality pasture or hay. Or you can use any combination of the above. Your focus should be on increasing the energy level in their diet. When deciding on an energy source for flushing, keep in mind that legumes should be avoided as they contain an estrogen like compound that can interfere with breeding cycles.

You can minimize your flushing input and maximize your success by separating your ewes into groups based on their age and BCS. That way you can focus on flushing ewes that are likely to respond. On an increased plane of nutrition, it should take 3-4 weeks to increase their condition by a half score. You ideally want your ewes to be a BCS of 3 or more to breed. Your BCS 3.5+ ewes are less likely to respond to flushing and can be maintained on their current diet. This way you can focus on only feeding your lower condition ewes to improve their performance.

If you are interested in potentially increasing the performance of your flock or have a lot of thin ewes going into breeding season consider experimenting with flushing! Research has proven it effective. Plus flushing can be used under any type of management system from grass fed to grain fed and everything in between. If you would like to learn more about how we are managing our flock, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Flushing Sheep To Maximize Reproductive Performance first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

If you see a lot of large holes in your plants and think you might have caterpillars, they are quite distinct and should be easy to find.

By the time you notice feeding damage the fritillary larvae should be quite big. The exact larvae appearance can vary a little. But, you will be looking for an orange and black caterpillar with big black spikes on it. They are really quite interesting looking creatures, and turn into beautiful butterflies.

The reason that damage seems to come out of nowhere is that larvae gets more and hungry as they grow. Fritillary butterflies will lay eggs on your plants. When they hatch out, the caterpillars will be plentiful and very tiny. Their little chewings will likely go unnoticed until the caterpillars have gotten large enough to make big holes. The point at which you see the damage, the caterpillars will probably be an inch or so long and getting close to pupating.

Before you go crazy squishing caterpillars, please listen to what we are about to say!

Passion flower species (incarnata andlutea) are the natural (and only) host plants for some fritillary butterfly species. On the east coast where Passiflora incarnata is native, the Gulf Fritillary is also native, and completely reliant upon the passion flowers for survival. It is their one and only host plant, similar to how monarchs require milkweed. The passion flower plants are adapted to being eaten by fritillary butterfly larvae. We have never had a problem with the caterpillars harming large established plants.

In fact, many of our customers purchase passion flower plants for the express purpose of using them in butterfly gardens to feed fritillary larvae. Since passion flowers are host plants, and fritillary butterflies are fairly common, most people withPassiflora incarnata or its various hybrids like Passiflora ‘Lady Margaret’ will see some caterpillar damage at some point. It is generally completely harmless.

So if the larvae are not completely defoliating your plants, please let them be.

That being said, young, small plants should be protected from defoliation as it can kill them. You can do this using row covers or picking the caterpillars off them. We do not recommend using pesticides to control fritillary larvae on passion flowers.

If you do not wish to attract butterflies to your garden, you can plant different, less desirable species instead of incarnata. Many of the non-native tropical species are less desirable or even toxic to the larvae. They are much less likely to show feeding damage, and won’t attract the butterflies like incarnata does.

Conversely, if you wish to grow passion flowers to attract fritillary butterflies to your yard, we definitely recommend planting Passiflora incarnata! While we do find caterpillars on other species. Incarnata is by far their preferred choice. Many passion flowers, including most reds and hybrids of those species are un-used and thought to be possibly toxic to the larvae. Some, like caerulea, might be able to be used by some fritillary but not others. In our experience given the choice between the 40+ varieties we grow, if incarnata is available, given the choice, our larvae avoid most everything else.

We hope that this alleviates concern over finding caterpillars or some feeding damage on your passion flower plants. We also hope that you enjoy seeing the beautiful butterflies they attract to your garden! Please sign up for our newsletter if you’d like to read more articles like this.

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Help! Something Is Eating My Passion Flower first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Sheep DO have a copper requirement. They can become copper deficient. Sheep can die from a copper deficiency, and it can be devastating to your lamb crop. So instead of villainizing an essential nutrient, let’s take a few minutes to take a quick look at the complicated nuances of copper and sheep. If we take the time to understand the relationship sheep have with copper we can manage nutrition properly rather than with irrational fear.

So, what is the deal with copper and sheep?

Copper is an important nutrient for animals, including sheep. It is required for making red blood cells, and supports wool or hair growth and pigmentation. Copper is also essential for nerve function, bone formation and white blood cells. So clearly some pretty important stuff. As you can probably tell from this list, a diet completely devoid of copper would be a very, very bad thing for your sheep.

And indeed it is. Sheep who are deficient in copper will have poor quality wool. The animals will likely be poorly conditioned and not thrifty. They will also likely be anemic and have poor fertility and conception rates. Lambs will have weak bones and be prone to fractures. Lastly, one of the most severe symptoms is neurological—swayback/enzootic ataxia—weakness, lack of coordination, tremors, and or paralysis. Swayback can be seen in newborn lambs if ewes are deficient during gestation. Sometimes it doesn’t appear until the lambs are older. Either way it is incurable as it results from impaired nervous system development as a fetus. Clearly sufficient copper levels are extremely important for the survivability and profitability of your sheep.

So why then is copper frequently stated as such a bad thing for sheep?

The why is simple. As compared to cows, goats, or horses, sheep have a very low copper requirement, and a very narrow safe range between deficient and toxic. For example, sheep need 4-11ppm copper (dry matter diet), but reach toxic levels between 15-25ppm. Goats on the other hand need 15-25ppm, but don’t reach toxicity levels until 70ppm. As you can see it is much easier to safely dose goats with copper because your safe range is much wider. It is very easy to poison a sheep with copper. This is what makes copper such a complicated topic with sheep.

In most forages in most places in this country the levels of copper are sufficient to meet the dietary needs of sheep without supplementation. This is why it is typically not recommended to feed sheep copper. It is not that your sheep aren’t eating copper, and that any copper at all in their diet is automatically going to kill them. It is simply that they typically don’t need extra added copper like other species do.

The levels of copper put in feeds for horses, goats, cows, pigs and poultry are too high for sheep to tolerate. The 15-25ppm goats need to not be deficient is a toxic level of copper for sheep. Thus, it is not recommended to feed your sheep EXTRA copper unless there is a documented deficiency. And this is what often gets mis-understood or misconstrued as sheep can’t have any copper, ever, period.

However, if your sheep are proven to be deficient you can carefully feed them copper supplements.

There are reasons that sheep can be copper deficient. Two of the most common reasons are grazing pastures very low in copper, or feeding forages with high molybdenum and sulfur levels. Nutrition is complex and nutrients do not exist in a void. They interact with each other in the soil, plants and animal’s bodies. High levels of sulfur and molybdenum bind up copper in the rumen making it unavailable. So in some cases even though it looks like their diet should be sufficient in copper on paper, deficiencies can still occur. Thus, it is important to holistically look at the picture when dealing with copper.

If you are going to feed copper to your sheep, it should be done very carefully and under veterinary supervision.

You should have symptoms eg. swayback in lambs and/or do testing to determine copper levels. Liver testing is the most accurate. Blood testing is not at all accurate. Pasture tests can also be very helpful to gaining insight into what your animals are consuming. They provide a rough estimate of what is available, and any potential nutrient interactions that might be occurring. They will also tell you if the copper levels present in your forages are a red flag for poisoning. However, they do not definitively tell you whether your sheep need supplemental copper or not.

If you are fairly confident that copper deficiency is causing the symptoms your sheep are showing, the definitive way to know for sure is to do a response trial where you supplement part of your flock with copper and not the other part keeping all other variables the same. You should supplement the minimum amount of copper required to resolve symptoms. For example, some flocks with documented copper deficiency problems only provide additional copper to pregnant ewes during gestation which allows their bodies to use up excess copper throughout the rest of the year to prevent accidental copper poisoning.

There are two ways sheep can get copper poisoning.

Copper poisoning can be acute or chronic. Acute poisoning is due to them gobbling a huge amount of copper accidentally. This has been known to occur from things like feed mills mixing feed incorrectly or sheep breaking into the chicken feed. Chronic poisoning is trickier. It is the result of feeding a little bit to much over a long period of time.

Sheep are extremely good at storing copper in their liver, and if their liver gets overwhelmed (often by a stressful event) they can release all the accumulated copper causing acute toxicity and death. Thus, it is important to make sure you are supplementing enough, but not too much copper to your sheep. If you are supplementing copper to eliminate deficiency symptoms, the best way to monitor the copper status of your flock over time is to take postmortem liver samples of culled animals.

It is also worth noting that different breeds of sheep have different copper tolerance levels.

Some breeds like Katahdins or Merino are more tolerant of higher copper levels. Some like Texel and Suffolk are very susceptible. So it is a good idea to research the susceptibility of the sheep you are keeping. Be even more careful about copper consumption in highly susceptible breeds.

It is also important to note that sheep can consume toxic levels of copper from forages alone. Though many copper poisoning incidents are a result of things like incorrect feed mixes, not all are. For example, it is not a good idea to graze sheep on land that has been fertilized with swine or poultry manure or on orchards sprayed with copper fungicides as they can cause toxicity. Thus, it is always a good idea to test forages and feed ingredients if there is any question about whether it is safe to feed.

As a sheep producer, you don’t have to irrationally fear copper. Treat it with respect. It’s dangerous, but also essential. Education about your animals’ needs and the copper levels of the available feed is your best defense against doing it wrong.

If you don’t have deficiency symptoms, avoid feeding your sheep extra copper. If you do have symptoms, don’t fear feeding copper to the point that your animals suffer. Work carefully and closely with a vet or nutritionist to determine the level of copper supplementation required to cure the deficiency without creating toxicity problems. Hopefully this has shed some light on the confusing, feared topic of copper and sheep so that you can more effectively make decisions for your flock.

If you would like to learn more about feeding your flock properly, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Copper and Sheep. Is Copper Going To Kill My Sheep? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Better yet, most long blooming plants are as undemanding as they are unassuming. They are happy to flower away for months at a time with the minimum of attention. Our garden has very dry sandy soil, and very hot full sun exposure. We don’t irrigate established perennials, so the plants on this list are tough and tolerant of abuse.

Heliopsis

Heliopsis is one of our absolute favorite garden plants. It gives so much for so little. This plant, also called the oxeye daisy, produces copious numbers of cheerful bright yellow daisies. There are several different cultivars available ranging from green leafed varieties to those with dark purple stems, and double flowered varieties.

It is easy to grow and care for and is tolerant of a wide variety of soil types as long as they are well drained. With an occasional trim to remove the spent flowers and to tidy the plant, it will provide you blooms from early summer until frost. If you have several plants, you can stagger trimming them to keep yourself in an abundance of blooms. As an added bonus, Heliopsis is native, and also makes an excellent cut flower.

Nepeta

No list of long blooming perennials would be complete without Nepeta, also known as cat mint. This versatile plant with spikes of almost blue flowers can find a place in almost any garden. It will bloom for a lengthy time on its own, but if you cut it back when the blooms slow, it will send up a new flush of blooms. Walker’s Low is one of our favorites, but there are a variety of cultivars available ranging in size from dwarf to massive. So be sure to choose one suited to your location.

Nepeta is drought tolerant, easy to grow and tolerant of a wide variety of well drained soils. It will grow in partial shade, but full sun will give you the most blooms. Yes, cats like it, but it is not to be confused with catnip which is a related but much less showy plant. Nepeta is in the mint family as are many herbs. As a result it is a pleasantly fragrant plant to brush against, and can be used to make a soothing tea.

Russian Sage

Russian Sage is somewhat similar looking to Nepeta in that it has spikes of purple flowers. It is also in the mint family and it is larger more woody plant with dusty green, fragrant foliage. Russian Sage is a subshrub, so depending on the climate, it may die back to the ground, or may remain alive over the winter.

Russian Sage has excellent heat and drought tolerance once established and requires almost no care aside from trimming to keep it manageable and flowering. It is tolerant of high pH soils. Russian Sage is deer resistant and perfect for difficult places like next to a paved driveway where almost nothing will grow. However, it should be noted that it is very intolerant of poorly drained conditions.

Blanket Flower

Blanket flowers come in both annual and perennial species. Both are amazing in the garden; however we prefer to plant perennial blanket flowers as they will return every year. While annual Blanket flowers are often tall (up to 3’), many cultivars of perennial blanket flowers are very short statured plants making them perfect for the front edges of beds. They have large flowers in shades of red and yellow. They will continue to bloom from spring until frost. Deadheading isn’t required, but you may wish to do so to tidy the appearance of the plant.

Perennial blanket flowers are easy to grow but are often short lived. They burn themselves out flowering. They will typically reseed themselves readily and should be allowed to do so to ensure they remain in your garden long term. It is also essential to have very good drainage, or the will not survive the winter.

Verbenas

Verbenas are another one that comes in a both perennial and annual varieties. They also come in a variety of form. You are likely most familiar with the annual verbenas sold in hanging baskets at garden centers. However, there are also perennial verbenas that bloom just as reliably in your garden. Two of our favorite verbenas are Moss Verbena and Verbena bonariensis.

Moss verbena is similar to the annual verbena you see. It is a short fluffy plant with lacy leaves, and copious quantities of pink, white, or purple flowers. Moss verbena will bloom year-round if the weather does not stop it. It can be a bit tricky to start from seed, but once established in an area, it should readily self-seed. It is great for bed edges or growing between rocks.

The second Verbena we love so much is a tall spiky plant. It produces Verbena type flower clusters on long bare stems. One plant by itself is fairly unimpressive. However, planted en masse it can be stunning. It also adds a fun whimsical texture to a cottage garden when allowed to self-seed around other plants. Just like the other plants on this list, occasionally cutting back your verbena will keep it tidy and blooming. In colder climates both of these Verbena varieties can be treated as an annual.

Hibiscus

The hibiscus we are referring to is the Rose of Sharon shrub. You cannot deny that they flower like crazy with no care for most of the summer. They produce large tropical looking blooms in a range of colors.

We are admittedly unimpressed, or even downright horrified by some of the older Hibiscus varieties out there. Many of the older fertile varieties will self-seed at an alarming rate, and are very weedy, ugly shaped plants. When it comes to purchasing a Hibiscus plant, they are definitely not all created equally. So, beware. Seeking out one of the newer sterile cultivars is essential! If you do they are a wonderful addition to the garden.

Hibiscus are fairly large shrubs and need to be given some space to grow. However, they are very agreeable to pruning. Since they flower on new wood, they should be trimmed back harshly in the winter to keep them blooming at their best.

Hydrangeas

The next plant on our list is very familiar to probably everyone. They are workhorses in the garden though, and can find a suitable location almost anywhere. Hydrangea varieties range from shade loving to full sun plants. They come in a variety of flower colors including the elusive blue. They also come in various flower shapes ranging from the typical mopheads you usually see, to less common lace cap varieties.

Hydrangeas are another plant where there are so many new amazing cultivars that outshine older varieties. Many older varieties were not reblooming, or were massive plants that didn’t fit in today’s smaller gardens. Now they are available in a multitude of dwarf and reblooming varieties for every application. Additionally, hydrangeas hold their blooms past when they have faded making them excellent for dried arrangements or winter interest in the garden.

Ice Plant

Ice plant is a succulent ground cover with thick fleshy leaves. It will bloom steadily all summer long. The flower petals are very fine and almost shimmery. Ice plants come in a multitude of colors ranging from the popular bright purple that we grow, to the orange-yellow-purple flowers of the variety ‘Fire Spinner’.

Ice plant is very drought and heat tolerant once established, and is perfect for planting around stepping stones or tucking into hot corners where you need a pop of color but have very little soil. Unlike some ground covers that run rampant, it is well mannered and happy to stay where you want it. The succulent foliage is evergreen and provides color and interest even when the plants aren’t blooming.

Butterfly Bush

Butterfly Bushes are another long blooming shrub that we love to hate. Just like with Rose of Sharon, many of the older Butterfly Bushes are highly undesirable to have in your garden. They self seeded aggressively, and grew into immense un-manageable shrubs. Fortunately, plant breeders have solved those problems. There are now dwarf (and very dwarf), sterile butterfly bushes that are much more well behaved in the garden.

Butterfly bushes are fantastic in the sense that they have gray-green foliage that provides a nice color contrast to the bright green of many plants. They can be evergreen, semi-evergreen, or completely deciduous depending on the climate. While they are actively growing they are constantly producing large panicles of brightly colored flowers. They will continue to produce blooms all summer long without any deadheading, though you may wish to shear the shrub or deadhead for a more tidy appearance.

Dahlia

Dahlias are great because they are low maintenance and come in a dizzying array of flower colors and types. There is literally a dahlia for everyone! They range from huge showy blossoms to small single flowers that are similar to a daisy. Plants can range from dwarf to tall making them able to fit almost anywhere. They will bloom continuously for months at a time without any deadheading or care. Though they may slow up on blooming in the hottest months of the year in warm climates.

Dahlias are tender perennials that can grow quite massive over time. They are often treated as annuals since they are not particularly cold hardy. However, the tubers can easily be dug and replanted in colder climates if you do not wish to purchase new plants yearly.

Manettia

The last plant on our list is a vine and its also fairly uncommon. It is not as drought tolerant as many of the plants on the list, and we do end up watering it occasionally in very dry weather. Nonetheless, its one of our favorites. Manettia is a very small, well behaved vine. The plant in our picture has been here for years and hasn’t outgrown its trellis.

It is a little slow to wake up in the spring, so doesn’t start flowering until more towards mid-summer. When it does start blooming, it doesn’t stop until frost. If you want to attract hummingbirds, this vine is perfect for that purpose. It is covered in a zillion red-orange tubular flowers for months. It is such a well-behaved plant that it requires no deadheading or pruning during the growing season.

There you have it; our cottage garden favorites. You now know our absolute favorite low maintenance, long blooming plants for our gardens. We hope that it provides you with some exciting new plants to add to your garden. In a future article we will discuss some of our favorite reseeding annuals that work well in our perennial gardens. If you don’t want to miss out on that article or other gardening tips, please sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Our Favorite Long Blooming Plants first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Overgrown hooves are uncomfortable and can reduce your animals productivity and quality of life. It can also make them more prone to problems like foot rot. Fortunately, trimming small ruminant hooves is quick and easy once you know how to do it.

Firstly, you will need a pair of hoof trimming shears, and a way to restrain your sheep.

It also doesn’t hurt to have some blood stop powder on hand. If your sheep have a full fleece of wool, they can easily be tipped up on their rump for hoof trimming. They even make special chairs to hold sheep in this position. If you have the more athletic hair sheep, this does not work as well. They are typically able to flip themselves back over. Our preference for trimming our tame flock of Katahdins is to tie them to something with a dish of corn for distraction. Then we trim their hooves in a similar manner to how a farrier trims horse hooves. You will have to figure out what works best for your sheep and setup.

Once you have the sheep restrained, you can pick up a hoof and dust it off. You will notice that there is a rubbery section at the heel, and thin hoof walls around the outside of their two toes. The hoof walls often, and heels occasionally, over grow and require trimming. If the hoof wall is overgrown, it will typically fold over the bottom of the foot. This creates a pocket to trap manure and debris and can cause serious problems.

What you want to do is carefully trim the hoof walls and heel back until they are flush with the sole of the foot.

Try to maintain the natural shape of the foot in the process. The shape of the foot should be obvious from the shape of the sole. The goal is to trim back the excess hoof wall without cutting into the quick. You don’t want to draw blood. You do not want to trim into the sole when trimming off the walls or you will draw blood. Sheep feet are fairly thin and soft so it is easy to cut too deeply if you aren’t careful.

Typically, the trickiest part is trimming the toe. Many times, the toe will get very long and pointy. This excess toe material needs to be carefully removed little by little so that you don’t accidentally cut too deeply. You can scrape out any dirt and flaky material as you trim. This way you can see when you reach the actual sole so that you don’t cut into the quick.

If you do cut a bit too deeply and draw a few drops of blood, don’t panic. Put some blood stop powder on the spot. Then keep the area clean until it has a chance to stop bleeding. Your sheep will probably be a bit sensitive on that foot for a little while, but they will be ok.

Don’t be afraid to trim your sheep’s hooves for fear of messing up.

Don’t vow to never trim again if you accidentally draw some blood. The damage done from not trimming their feet is a much greater risk than the harm of accidentally drawing a few drops of blood trimming them. Plus, as you gain experience you will become less likely to accidentally cut too deeply.

Sometimes if the hoof has gotten very overgrown and misshapen, the hoof wall can separate from the sole. This creates a bulging pocket that is often filled with manure. If this is the case with one of your hooves, go ahead and carefully remove the separated section of hoof wall up to where it is attached. This will allow it to grow back down properly. You must remove the separated section. Otherwise, it will continue to separate due to the mechanical force of them standing on it. Additionally, that manure filled cavity is a fantastic place for pathogenic bacteria to proliferate. Get rid of it.

Sheep with good feet that have not been allowed to overgrow should never have this problem.

Selecting for animals with good quality feet and excellent confirmation will make your job easier. These animals will wear their feet uniformly resulting in less overgrowth and distorted hooves to fix. While we strive to select sheep that have good confirmation and excellent feet that require little to no trimming, we still like to check our sheep’s feet a couple times a year. Many of our ewes need very little hoof care, but we find that it is much easier to address any overgrowth problems frequently than it is to fix a grossly overgrown hoof.

Additionally, checking hooves a few times a year makes it obvious which sheep have poor confirmation and hoof quality. They show up with horribly overgrown, disastrous feet every single trim, and often require remedial trimming. We consider them good candidates to consider for culling as they are likely to pass these traits on to their offspring.

Lastly, if your sheep are living on very soft ground where they require frequent trimming (more than 1-2x a year) to maintain their feet, you can add abrasive surfaces to reduce the need to trim hooves. Having to walk over rocks or rough cement to reach the feeders or water will help increase the wear on their hooves and reduce your workload.

If you would like to read more of our articles on caring for your sheep, please sign up for our newsletter to have them delivered to your inbox!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Trim Sheep Hooves first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Reason 1: Sun exposure

As a general rule, passion flowers are full sun plants. They’ll grow in partial shade, but they won’t flower. Unfortunately, 6-8 hours of sunlight isn’t enough to make them happy. Their preference is to be in a full dawn to dusk sunny location. Some light/dappled afternoon shade can be desirable for some varieties in very hot locations. However, for the majority of the United States, and the majority of passion flowers, getting them as much sun as possible is ideal.

If your passion flower isn’t flowering and its in a shady or semi-shady location, moving it to a more sunny location is the first thing we recommend trying. In our opinion, this probably tops the list for why passion flowers aren’t flowering. This is particularly true of any of the free flowering hybrids.

The reason we say this is that in the early spring a lot of our plants start actively growing and putting out flower buds. As soon as we put a light shade cloth over the greenhouse to help moderate temperature flowering stops. Even the most free-flowering varieties stop flowering. So try this first!

Reason 2: Daylength

Depending on which variety or species you are growing, this can also be a very valid reason why your passion flower isn’t flowering. Some varieties are photoperiod sensitive and will only bloom when the number of hours of daylight is correct. For example, if a passion flower you are growing is a short day variety like Passiflora ‘Maui’, it will not bloom in the middle of the summer no matter what else you do.

This is more likely to be the case for passion flowers in our Rare Passion Flowers category that are species rather than hybrids. Most, but not all of the named hybrids are easier to get to bloom, and they typically bloom over a longer season. If you have a question about what we find the flowering period for a particular plant to be, you’re welcome to ask.

Reason 3: Age/size

Some passion flowers seem to need to attain a sufficient size or maturity before they start flowering. This is again less common with the named hybrids than many of the species. Sometimes after planting a new plant, they will go into a stage of rapid vegetative growth where the plant is focusing on producing leaves and roots rather than blossoms. Later as the conditions become more favorable it may start flowering.

If you are hoping for a passion flower that will jump straight into flowering for you, many of the varieties in our Easy Care category are very free flowering. Varieties such as P. ‘Fata Confetto’, P. ‘Lady Margaret’ P. ‘Clear Sky’ and P. ‘Blue Velvet’ will set buds on tiny little plants, and we often ship them with buds.

Reason 4: Temperature

Temperature can also be a big problem. Both too hot and too cold can cause issues depending on the variety. Some of the very tropical heat loving varieties want it warm to flower. They won’t bloom in cold temperatures, and may never bloom well or at all in some locations. Conversely, many varieties that don’t like heat may abort buds or stop making buds in hot weather.

We try to list on descriptions if a variety is heat loving, or heat intolerant. Some of the worst offenders for not flowering in the summer due to heat are P. ‘Monika Fischer’, P. ‘Lavender Lady’, and pinks like P. ‘Anastasia’. Often these varieties will not bloom in the summer in the deep south, but may really shine in the spring and fall. However, in many of the cooler parts of the country they will bloom happily all season and out -perform heat loving varieties.

Reason 5: Nitrogen

Lastly, we are including too much nitrogen on our list. We are mainly including it so that we can address the mis-information. This seems to come up as the “most common reason” if you do a Google search, and we find that many times people are afraid to fertilize and care for their passion flowers because they’ve been warned that they “need poor soil or they won’t flower”. As a result we get people sending pictures of plants that are obviously desperately starved of nutrients asking what’s wrong.

So yes, it is absolutely true that too much nitrogen can reduce flowering. However in our experience having that level of nitrogen isn’t very common. It is absolutely not true that passion flowers need poor soil or to be nutrient starved to bloom! So while technically a possible reason, in actual practice it seems pretty unlikely to be the reason as compared to the above 4 reason.

Too little fertilizer can actually be equally if not more detrimental to getting your plant to bloom.

Passion flowers only flower on new growth. They set buds in the leaf nodes as they are developing, so if your plant is nutrient starved and not actively growing much, it won’t be setting flower buds.

In our experience passion flowers are heavy feeders. This makes sense since they are growing so rapidly. We recommend treating your passion flower the same as any other flowering plant you are growing. It does need feeding, particularly if you are growing it in a container. We recommend using a fertilizer designed for blooming plants. These fertilizers have lower nitrogen and higher phosphorus and potassium levels.

If you have eliminated all the other reasons on this list and your plant is putting out excessive vegetative growth and not blooming, you can try slowing down the fertilizer. If you haven’t been feeding your plant for fear of it not blooming, try giving it a fertilizer boost. This is particularly important if it looks yellow, the leaves are speckled, or it otherwise looks hungry for nutrients.

Lastly, if you have questions about a specific variety, or have tried everything and still can’t get your plant to bloom, you are welcome to contact us. We can’t guarantee that we will be able to get it flowering for you, but we will do our best to help you troubleshoot the problem.

Next time we are going to be discussing our favorite long blooming perennials. Don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter so that you don’t miss out!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post My Passion Flower Isn’t Flowering. Why?? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Because most people only have a few geese, and they only lay a few eggs a week, incubating multiple batches of eggs due to hatch at various times often works best. However, you CANNOT hatch eggs in the same incubator where you are incubating eggs that are not ready to hatch. That is a good recipe for losing your later hatches. The losses are either due to bacterial contamination, or failure to lose enough water due to the increased humidity from the hatch.

This is where having a second hatching incubator comes in very handy.

We do not ever hatch eggs in our incubator. Hatching eggs is a wet, messy, bacteria contaminated process. Thus, we think it’s best to keep hatching out of our incubator. We want a separate easy to clean hatcher to move the eggs to. If you are hatching goose eggs, it is also important to take into consideration that goslings are very tall and need enough headroom to stand up. This is something most off the shelf incubators do not provide.

If you are using your DIY incubator exclusively as a hatcher, you do not need to worry about an egg turner. This simplifies the design and building process. The control module we use can accommodate an egg turner. So if you want to add one, it can certainly be done.

The first thing you are going to need is a container to make your incubator out of.

Many people use things like coolers, and you can choose to use whatever you might have around that is suitable. We decided that a $5 plastic tote from Walmart was the best option. It was inexpensive. It’s clear so we can view the hatch without opening the incubator. The goslings can stand up, and it is easy to clean.

When selecting a container, please keep in mind that size and insulation matter. If it is too big you won’t be able to keep it warm enough unless you use a different setup than what we are using. The tote we are using is approximately 16” x 12” x 6”. If the weather is cold we wrap the sides and part of the top with towels to provide some insulation. Anything larger, and our heat source would probably not be sufficient. That being said, you can hatch quite a few goose eggs in a 12” x 16” space.

Next, you will need a floor for inside your hatcher.

This needs to be something that is sturdy, flat and smooth to set your eggs on to keep them off the bottom of the incubator. You need to be able to put water in the bottom, and do not want your eggs to be sitting in it. Our floor is simply a folded over piece of chicken wire with a mesh over the top of it. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Some well supported plastic mesh from a craft store is sufficient.

Lastly, you will need the most expensive component.

The control module. We are using the Incukit Mini^(TM) from Incubator Warehouse. It is compatible with their egg turner motor if you wish to add an egg turner to your hatcher/incubator. While this is one of the more expensive DIY options, all in one unit with the proportional thermostat is very good at keeping temperatures very stable. We think it is worth the cost to have a stable,well regulated environment.

You will also need a few basic tools like a drill, sharp utility knife and a screwdriver.

To make the incubator, you will need to use the utility knife to cut out a square hole in the lid of your tote for the screen and buttons of the control module to fit through. Then you will need to drill small holes to put the screws through.

Before you attach the control module to the lid, drill a few larger holes in the lid. One of them should be in a location that the power cord can be fed through it. The others are to allow ample oxygen to your hatching eggs. Once you have drilled your holes, you can screw the control module onto the lid. Then you can place your floor into the incubator and plug it in.

You should test it before putting the eggs in.

Make sure it maintains the correct temperature! To do that you can place some small containers of water in it to simulate eggs. Adjust your thermostat and insulation until the temperature maintains a steady temperature of 99.5 degrees. You are then ready to start hatching eggs.

The reason you want to test your hatcher with something like containers of water is that without the thermal mass of the eggs it is more difficult for the incubator to stabilize temperature because it changes too quickly and easily. You will get a much more accurate trial run with water.

We are strongly considering designing and making an incubator similar to this that has an automatic egg turner. When we do so we will add that information. If you don’t want to miss out on that update, consider signing up for our newsletter so that our new articles will be delivered directly to your inbox!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How To Make Our Goose Egg Incubator first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Firstly, you need to define what you want your plant to do for you.

Are you planning to plant it in a pot and overwinter it inside? Do you want it to be cold hardy in the ground? Do you want it to cover a fence? Should it be small and manageable? Are you looking for fruit or would you rather it be sterile? And the list goes on. So what is it you want from your plant?

Once you have considered what you want out of your plant, then you need to consider what you can practically provide for it. What we mean here is what kind of conditions do you have to keep your plant in. We are talking about answers to things like the following questions. Are your summers cool or blazing hot? Can you provide it with full sun? Are you overwintering it as a house plant, or does it need to go dormant so you can store it in a garage? Are you new to growing passion flowers or do you have experience? Can you keep it in a 10 gallon pot or only a 3 gallon one?

Once you are armed with this kind of information we can help you to make an educated guess about what would work best for you. Keep in mind that every location and every grower is different, there are a million different variables and micro climates that can affect your plant’s growth. So, you still might have to do some experimenting to find the absolutely best variety.

Passion flowers are an incredibly diverse number of species from an amazing array of different environments ranging from blazing hot to cool and temperate.

As thus, not all passion flowers perform equally. We have tried to break our varieties down into a few categories to make selection easier. The plants in our Easy Care category are typically going to give you the most bang for your buck in terms of flowering and ease of care. Most hybrids are going to out perform straight species. The named hybrids have been specifically selected for their garden performance.

However, one thing is still a non-negotiable essential for all passion flowers. Passion flowers are full sun plants. Most of them are not going to bloom with 6-8 hours of sun. Unless they need protection from heat, they will perform best with full dawn to dusk sun. 8 hours is an absolute minimum. Though many passion flowers will grow well in the shade, they will not flower.

If you are looking for something unique, you can grab something out of our Rare Varieties category.

Keep in mind thought that these varieties typically are much more fussy to grow and many of them only bloom for a short time. Their blooms can be spectacular though if you can coax them into flowering. P. miersii and P. sidifolia are good examples.

If you are looking for a fruiting variety in much of the country, Passiflora incarnata is unfortunately your only real choice. While there are many varieties that grow fruit they are really only suited for warm places like California or Florida. P. edulis is the most commonly grown variety for fruit. Even container grown P. edulis does not have a long or warm enough season to produce fruit in most places.

If you are on the eastern half of the country, Passiflora incarnata and its hybrids are some of the best choices. This is because Passiflora incarnata is native here. It is well adapted to the growing conditions. In terms of size, vigor, number of flowers, ease of care and overwintering ability they are hard to beat. They shrug off heat and humidity often seen in the summers here. They are pollinator magnets that will bloom steadily all summer long.

If you are in the deep south, you need to look for varieties that love heat.

We have many of them including most of our P. incarnata hybrids and the P. caerulea hybrids, but also less common ones like P. holosericea. Typically, most pinks do not do well in heat and humidity, and with the possible exception of P. Victoria, they should be avoided. They are not a good choice for a hot humid location unless you are prepared to baby a plant and possibly lose it to heat stress.

Many of the less heat tolerant plants will survive but will drop flower buds in high temperatures. This is typically listed in the descriptions. These plants should be avoided unless you are ok with only having flowers in the cooler weather. Examples of plants that will live but drop buds/stop flowering in high heat include P. Monika Fischer and P. Lavender Lady, and P. loefgrenii x caerulea. Though P. Lavender Lady really shines in the fall in hot climates when not much else is in bloom.

If you live in a colder part of the country, it is essential to choose a variety that is both cool weather tolerant and also free flowering.

Many of the less free flowering varieties will not bloom well in the north. This is either due to it not being warm enough, not being warm enough for long enough, or warm enough when the number of hours of daylight is sufficient to trigger blooming. Typically you would want to stick with cold hardy varieties, or anything that mentions that it prefers cool weather. P. Belotii is particularly well suited to growing in cooler climates as it overwinters easily as a house plant. This was our passion flower of choice when living in Vermont. Varieties like P. Fata Confetto and P. Blue Velvet and P. Lady Margaret can also be good choices.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a moderate, frost free environment like California, you can grow almost anything successfully so long as you water them sufficiently. This is also the sort of place where winter blooming reds like P. Maui really shine. Winter blooming plants are a disappointment in most areas.

If you live in the sort of middle part of the country where summers are fairly warm and long, you can grow a wide variety of passion flowers.

Most of the heat intolerant ones will do ok, and it is also warm enough to grow many of the heat loving varieties. You just have to grow many of them as disposable annuals or in containers that you can bring inside to overwinter. Nonetheless, their spectacular blooms can be worth it!

If you are wishing for a passion flower to overwinter outside in much of the United States, your choices are fairly limited. P. incarnata is the most hardy variety we grow, and many of its hybrids come in second. Check out our Cold Hardy category and compare the listed hardiness zone to yours.

When discussing cold hardiness in passion flowers, it is essential to note that your location MUST be dry.

Passion flowers are very susceptible to root rot and wilts particularly in cool temperatures. If your plant is in a location that it sits wet over the winter, it will die regardless of the temperature. Keep in mind that passion flowers can be unreliably hardy, particularly in marginal soil conditions in climates close to their limit. Planting your plant in a warm sheltered microclimate that is very well drained and mulching it thoroughly can help it to survive winters better.

If you are looking for a plant that goes dormant and can be overwintered in a cool location like a garage or basement, P. incarnata’s hybrids, and P. Blue Bouquet or P. Lavender Lady all go dormant and overwinter well. P. caerulea hybrids can also go dormant though we find that they prefer to go semi-dormant and be kept somewhere that they get light.

Lastly, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, P. caerulea types will probably perform better than P. incarnata types. While we do not have personal experience growing passion flowers there, it is our understanding that P. caerulea tolerates the cool damp conditions there better than P. incarnata which is adapted to the heat and humidity of the southeast. It can be different to overwinter in the northwest due to the wet climate.

Hopefully this clarifies some differences between different groups of passion flowers and makes selecting your next plant easier! Next time we are going to discuss reasons why your passion flower isn’t blooming. If you’re interested in reading about that, please sign up for our newsletter to have it delivered to your inbox!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post What Passion Flower is the Best?? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.