The second and final film in which Charles Bickford and Kay Johnson appeared together after Dynamite (1929). Passion Flower and Dynamite share several of the same crew members, and the respective films were each directed by a deMille brother.
The novel of the same title by Kathleen Norris was serialized in The Delineator magazine from March to September 1929.
According to a contemporary article in Variety, Greta Garbo and Katharine Cornell had turned down offers to be in this picture.