I live in the South of France (Midi Pyrenees) and want to grow a passion flower or simlar up the front wall of my house. We have a variable climate here. Very hot in summer with plenty of rain but we do have frosts and snow for about two weeks in Januar

Hi Wendy! Welcome to GOY. I live in the Picos de Europa mountains in northern Spain and my weather sounds exactly like yours, but I grew a Passion Flower last year from seed and it was rampant - rapidly climbing the column until it reached the balcony, then spreading out across the balustrade. It gave us hours of pleasure watching the bees foraging every day. We pruned it right back before winter and it's now throwing out leaf shoots from the stems and new shoots from the roots so - go for it!

I live an hour northwest of Toulouse and we've got a passion flower growing just up the street. Have you already planted yours?

The most important thing is to make sure that the soil is well-draining, as the roots tend to rot over the winter is they are planted in waterlogged soils. Use 1/3 compost, 1/3 loam and 1/3 sand and make sure that the plant isn't planted in a low spot.

We have planted ours and it is growing rapidly. Thanks for the tips though as we have some other small plants which we will plant out next year.