Bougainvillea Bougainvillea A love blog about bougainvillea.

One thing we should never take for granted is that a garden keeps growing. While current dry climatic conditions may restrict some garden tasks, life in a garden goes on. And so our gardens call us to continue, as there is still so much we need to do.
l Take steps to save your most valued plants. Be they gifts from friends and relatives, collectable rarities, or your favourite flowers, etc, you may consider moving them to pots, or giving them preferential mulching and watering to survive.

l Insert watering tubes next to important shrubs. These can be made from two litre cold drink bottles or sawn-off sections of PVC pipe. Water poured down the watering tubes reaches the root zone without running away from the plant.

l By pruning or lightly trimming shrubs and fillers, you regain a balanced ratio between roots and foliage. Less water will be needed for a slightly smaller plant. Don’t cut back too much, as this will stimulate too much new growth (which requires more water).
l Keep your plants in good condition. It is still the growing season, so you should still be feeding. Starving plants will be under even more stress, which makes them susceptible to diseases. Make use of slow release fertilisers like Bounceback, Sudden Impact, organic 3:1:5 or chemical 3:1:5 (26) SR. Bonemeal is a great fertiliser for hardening off plants, without making them shoot out too much. You can also use soluble fertilisers such as Seagro or Nitrosol, which are not as strong as standard granular feeds.

l Cover large tracts of exposed soil in beds. Exposure to wind, and the baking effect of sun damages surface roots, and leads to evaporation of valuable water. Plant water- wise ground covers such as portulaca, verbena, aptenia or felicia close together, to help shade and shelter the soil around your plants. Alternatively, make use of a thick mulch of bark chips, gravel, pine needles or dry grass clippings to cover exposed soil.
l Construct ridges, rises and berms around plants or whole beds to trap water around your plants. These “dams” encourage water to soak into the soil directly around the roots.

l Add some joy to life in your garden. A small pot on the patio or at the front door is easy to maintain. Use some water-wise flowering plants to colour your life.

Pelargoniums, bougainvillea and lavender will bring a smile back to your garden.

Exotic orchids, the neon Bougainvillea and Rex Begonias are certain to brighten winter days

Don't despair if your green thumb turns a nasty shade of black when it comes to caring for indoor plants. You will be gratified to know that it's often not your fault -- it's more likely the tricky requirements of the plant or the inhospitable winter conditions within a Canadian house that cause your plants to shrivel and die.

Then again, it could be your fault because the natural tendency is to overwater and drown unhappy plants. Like people, plants' roots that are constantly wet or bone-dry either get mouldy and rot or become dehydrated and shut down.

Which means if you are a cursory gardener then many but, happily, not all indoor plants are for you.

You may already know that the most seductive flowering plants, including gardenias, exotic orchids (like the Lady slipper or Cattleya varieties), azaleas, hibiscus, oleander, mandevilla and bougainvillea need experienced and dedicated care.

Some need very consistent conditions. Gardenias are famous for dropping their buds and flowers if temperatures fluctuate and azaleas will droop and sulk almost immediately if inadvertently exposed to direct sun. Others need brutal mid-winter haircuts. All flowering tropical plants cannot sustain their summer abundance through our meagre indoor winters, while all need owners who are not faint of heart when it comes to insects, especially the most common of sunny pests -- spider mites and scales.

But the news is not all bad. The tropical plant world has responded to the needs of indoor gardeners by producing more plants with outstanding foliage, indestructible constitutions and reliable blossoms.

Flowering plants, including clivia, streptocarpus, the phalaeonopsis orchid, hoya and stephanotis, citrus plants and the ubiquitous African violet are all easy to care for and relatively dependable bloomers.

While the African violet, streptocarpus and phalaeonopsis will flower for relatively long periods of time throughout the year, others are less productive, but still spectacular.

The clivia (named after Lady Clive, so pronounced clive-ia) has big strappy leaves that give way to one or more single stems that bear a cluster of striking orange blooms once a year. And if you ever see a yellow one, grab it -- it's very rare and as beautiful as it is expensive. This plant likes to be root-bound, so don't repot it. And when you do, only move to a slightly larger pot, keeping it there until the container is about to bust.

The streptocarpus has soft, fuzzy leaves, much like its relative the African violet, with flowers that come in various colours, including dark purple, blue and pink. In a bright window, the dancing, orchid-like blooms are held high above its arching leaves and flowering seems to go on and on. If you keep it deadheaded, carefully watered (avoid the leaves and water from below) and moderately fertilized, I guarantee that this gem will become one of your favourites.

Some of the newest and most interesting foliage plants on the market include the newer forms of philodendron, including autumn (copper new leaves with red stems) or moonlight (chartreuse young leaves that darken to green as they mature). Philodendrons are great low-light plants, requiring some support as they grow vertically and regular wiping to keep their broad leaves shiny.

If you love chartreuse foliage, you could also try the so-called neon pothos. This is a trailing plant very similar in form to the philodendron, but would rather trail than climb. It has bright neon yellow leaves and will thrive under the most inhospitable of conditions and care. If you love the golden sweet potato vine, and grow it as an annual, this tropical version of summer sunshine is for you.

My personal favourites among easy-to-grow indoor plants are rex begonias. Unlike the tuberous or fibrous begonias, that are grown mainly for their colourful flowers. The rex varieties are superstars because of the kaleidoscopic colours of their leaves.

With names like escargot or chocolate cream, you'd think they were good enough to eat. All you need is moderate light (an east or north window; no direct sun please), some humidity (try a humidifier or place your pot on a pebble tray -- a saucer with a layer of pebbles that acts to raise your pot above a constant supply of evaporating water) and good air circulation to avoid mildew. You have instant colour in the middle of the winter blahs.

In the grim bloodbath that was Florida vs. Cold, Florida lay gasping in a pathetic shambles. Drive around, look out your window, sniff the putrid burn, and you'll know the carnage.

Grass, once green and lush, looks like dry fettucini. Palm trees have all the vitality of a paper lunch bag sprayed with starch. Leaves have the audacity to crunch under our shoes.

"It looks pretty sad," said Irene Liporto, whose pink and orange hibiscus plants are crispy and angry at the universe. Her crown of thorns have no will to live. Her pink and white bougainvillea — the prettiest thing in history — is a shadow of its former self.

"Oh, yeah, that's one of my favorites, and it looks terrible," said Liporto, who lives in St. Petersburg's Old Northeast neighborhood. "Right now, I sort of want to blindfold myself so I don't see it. It's kind of sad. I garden. I put in a lot of work."

Her pruning pal and neighbor Sue Skaggs commiserates. She has lived on Bay Street for 40 years. Her garden hasn't done this kind of death march since the 1970s, when she lost her orchids and mango trees.
Some people are frantically hosing down the brown with off-limits water.

"We've had an increase in violations in the last couple of days," said Terrie Grace, who is in charge of Pinellas County's water restriction program. The rules still apply. Same goes in other Tampa Bay area counties.
Overwatering your plants is bad anyway, experts say. For now, it's best to stand by. Don't massacre dead leaves with shears or drown them in a fit of panic. Have faith that life springs eternal.

The Old Northeast pals did a scratch test on a bougainvillea, running a fingernail over the gross brown branch. Underneath: a miraculous streak of green.

Bougainvillea is a perennial vine that can grow to 30 feet, depending on the variety. It needs full sun, is root hardy and will regrow in spring. Its bracts "bloom" May-December on new wood. Heavy pruning, lack of water and fertilizer low in nitrogen encourage blooming.

Q: When can I prune my bougainvillea?
A: You can prune hard most any time. I've known gardeners to prune bougainvillea to the ground, but you might remove 1/3 to 2/3 of the stems instead. Then snip the branches in the future to keep it in bounds.
If a freeze threatens, protect tender new growth and mulch the roots.

Many grow bougainvilleas in containers and prune hard in winter before bringing the potted plants indoors for protection. Others prune hard in spring and then prune back to the edge of the container/basket after each flowering cycle to shape the plant. Or they pinch the soft tips after a flowering cycle to encourage branching.
Bougainvillea blooms on new wood. The more you prune and pinch to encourage growth, the more color you get.

Q. How do I prune my bougainvillea?
A. Bougainvillea is a vine that drops its leaves in winter and puts on new foliage when warm weather returns in spring. Some grow this plant in containers or baskets; others grow it as a large vine with support.
You can prune the plant when and how much you like. Pinch the soft tips of young plants to promote a bushier form. After flowering, prune branches back hard, to the edge of the container or basket, to shape.

Q: I didn't cover my bougainvilleas during the freeze. Should I prune them back now or wait until the threat of freezing temperatures is past?
A: I like to wait to prune, since it usually means I start the growing season with a larger plant. Freeze-damaged wood provides some protection for live wood further down the stems. If you don't care about this, you can prune now; but mulch well to protect the roots during future cold snaps.

Q: When can I transplant a bougainvillea?
A: It is safe to transplant in winter if it can be protected during a freeze. To play it safe, transplant in spring. Be careful with the fragile roots. Mulch.

Q: Why won't my bougainvillea bloom?
A: Bougainvillea, many say, color best when somewhat pot-bound. Those planted in the garden have plenty of space for roots to stretch, giving you lots of green growth. But eventually it should color.
Most agree that the bracts color best when the plants are subjected to dry periods.

To force bougainvillea into bloom for nursery sales, growers often withhold water for up to three months. The poor plant thinks it's dying. Then the grower waters heavily, the plant thinks it has one last chance to propagate itself, so it produces a volume of flowers to launch seed for future plants.

To encourage flowering: Water and fertilize, but not heavily, during spring and summer. If a plant wilts because it is too dry, give it some water. Use a high-potash fertilizer, such as a bougainvillea fertilizer, rather than a high-nitrogen fertilizer.

Apply about a tablespoon of hibiscus fertilizer every three to four weeks. Or use a specially formulated bougainvillea fertilizer. A tablespoon of Epsom salts when you fertilize can be beneficial, too.

Stop fertilizing during late fall and winter; water only when you see a slight wilt. Large, container-grown plants can be pruned so they can more easily be stored in the garage to protect the roots from below-freezing weather. Or prune plants in early spring. Return potted bougainvillea to a full-sun location in spring and resume monthly fertilizing.

Prune long trailing stems back 20-30 inches to encourage more color — the flowers and bracts form on new wood.

Plants will flower for weeks, then rest before blooming again.

Some bougainvillea varieties benefit, too, from long nights and short days and bloom best in fall. Those gardeners who have exhausted all tricks to encourage color should make sure the reluctant plant is not exposed to light at night. You might just have a variety that is a fall performer.

What you see aren't actually the flowers. You see the colorful bracts or petal-like leaves. They hold their color for an extremely long time, which is why they are such great sale plants.

BGI Select Soil for Bougainvillea



BGI Select Bonsai Soil 2lb



Professional Bonsai Soil Mix 2lb




Tropical / Subtropical Mix for Bonsai 2lb



Conifer Soil Mix for Bonsai 2lb



Red Akadama Japanese Bonsai Soil 2lb



Brown Akadama Japanese Bonsai Soil 2lb



Kyoto Moss Spores