Bougainvillea Bougainvillea A love blog about bougainvillea.

Fertilization

These vines are heavy feeders and respond best to feeding every week or two with ½ strength water soluble fertilizer, e.g., BOUGAIN Bloom Boost from BGI. With high light and consistent feeding, the plants will bloom at least 11 months of the year.


Watering

Bougainvilleas flower best under stress. Keep your bougainvillea slightly on the dry side, and allow the plant to become root bound. In containers they should be watered frequently so the soil feels nicely moist but never soggy. Water thoroughly, then allow to become moderately dry between waterings. They respond extremely well to stress, such as drought and heat, and reward you with excellent bloom. Even with a tolerance for drought, however, you end up watering plants nearly every day because of the small root system. Irrigate enough at each watering so that the water comes through the drain holes in the bottom of the container.


Container Growing

Bougainvilleas do best in large (5-10 gallon) clay containers if grown outdoors (clay containers tend to stay drier, thus stressing the plants) or in large handing baskets. The 10" basket is the commercial standard, but plants will do much better in 12" hanging baskets. Place the containers in full sun, or in a place where they will receive at least ½ day of full sun. If your bougainvillea is not blooming, it probably is not receiving enough sun or fertilizer. These plants thrive in the tropics in areas of low rainfall and intense sun and heat. A well drained bougainvillea potting soil, like BGI Select Quick-Draining Potting & Garden Soil for growing Bougainvillea.

Here's one for the ages... of all the bougainvillea varieties and colors out there, which color turns the most heads? In YOUR opinion, which is the greatest show stopper?  We're providing you with a list of varieties, go visit then come back and comment below!

1. Ambiance - Bougainvillea
2. Barbara Karst - Bougainvillea
3. Elizabeth Angus - Bougainvillea
4. Flavored ICE Series - Bougainvillea
5. Helen Johnson - Bougainvillea
6. Imperial Delight - Bougainvillea
7. Lady Baring - Bougainvillea
8. Miami Pink - Bougainvillea
9. Miss Alice - Bougainvillea
10. New River - Bougainvillea
11. Silhouette - Bougainvillea
12. Sundown Orange - Bougainvillea
13. Vera Deep Purple - Bougainvillea

This seems to be one topic many people cannot get enough of... I believe it's 3 parts psychological, 1 part unknowing.  You see, the concept of pruning and pinching bougainvillea is about as old as bougainvillea itself.  But even as the years elapse, many still don't understand why or how to prune bougainvillea.

The psychological aspect is rather simple to explain: the brains ineptitude to exercise harm, knowingly, is difficult to execute.  No one wants to grab shears and hack away at a plant for fear of hurting it or worse, destroying it.  But the truth is, is if you want to maximize your bougainvilleas ability to bloom, pinching is essential. Pinching bougainvillea produces leaf-buds, and leaf-buds produce new growth, and bougainvillea only bloom on new growth.

One prunes in order to  contain growth.  If you like a wild & outward growth, don't prune. If you like a contained, stronger growth then consider pruning your bougainvillea on a set schedule.

The video below, will teach you how to prune your bougainvillea:


Wait a minute? How do I pinch bougainvillea?  Ahh... you are a sharp student.  We do not have a video for you at this time, however, we do have some high-resolution images and a succinct set of instructions on how to pinch your bougainvillea.

Enjoy!

A trellis is an architectural structure, usually made from interwoven pieces of wood, bamboo or metal that is often made to support climbing plants. There are many types of trellis for different places and for different plants, such as sweet peas, grapevines, ivy, bougainvillea, and climbing roses or other support based growing plants.

To create your own bougainvillea trellis, we recommend using wood or woven-wood.  The reason we suggest wood is because a metal trellis will get very hot and stunt the growth of the bougainvillea.  Remember, bougainvillea need lots of sunlight.  Sunlight on metal = hot.

To begin, put one or multiple bougainvillea plants per pot to create your own bougainvillea trellis.  Place the trellis structure toward the back of the plant, and tie up the branches to the trellis using tie tape to establish "tie points".

That's it! Bougainvillea are vine and will use the trellis you provide it to encroach and grow.  Bougainvillea can grow from 1 - 12 meters tall.  The time it takes to make a bougainvillea trellis all depends on how tall of a trellis you are making, the time of year, the variety, AND the quality of care and maintenance that you give it.

To make them flower all along the trellis, just remember to trim/pinch after each bloom cycle all along the plant and not just at the top.

Consider using BOUGAIN®, a specially formulated bougainvillea fertilizer.

2010 is already ending with a cold "BANG"!  So what are you going to do about your precious bougainvillea?


Here are some quick tips on "winterizing bougainvillea".

• Bring them Indoors - If you have planted your bougainvillea in the soil outdoors and want to dig it up and move it indoors for the winter, expect the plant to go into dormancy sooner than if it had been in a container -- the root damage as a result of digging will be the cause rather than the cool weather -- but the plant should survive this kind of transplanting.
  
• Hard Prune - it's recommended you do a hard prune before bringing them indoors. Bougainvillea is a vine and new growth (after a prune) starts one or more leafbuds below the cut and not up and down the entire branch. By doing a "hard" prune, next spring, when the plant regrows it will be fuller from the base up.
  
• Plant in a Container - Generally, bougainvillea can be grown in anything that will hold soil and allow proper drainage. Some of the more traditionally used containers include terra cotta (clay) pots, plastic pots, hanging baskets, wire baskets lined with sphagnum moss or fibrous liners, concrete planters, planter boxes, and bushel baskets. Just remember that the container MUST have proper drainage.