Bougainvillea Info

Just came accross this Bougainvillea tutorial while looking for pruning information . It has everything you could possibly need to know
http://www.askmar.com/Bougainvilleas/Bougainvilleas.pdf

 

Thanks Harry - that looks excellent - but haven't had time to read it fully.

I have a small bougainvillea sitting on my kitchen window sill. I have been watching in dismay as the leaves have dropped off (its down to 3 now) wondering - is it too much or too little water? Then suddenly I noticed lots of tiny little green sprouts. :yess:

I will read that with great interest.

 

Its only 37 pages long Peter ! It does say that Bouganvilleas can drop their leaves in winter and sprout again in early spring , although it would be a bit concerning for this to happen .
I am planning to repot mine in some JI No 3 ( not the cheapest of composts ! ) and prune it to maintain its standard shape. I always like to read up on pruning techniques for a plant , instead of just hacking it away .

 

Bougainvillea usually loses leaves if its conditions are changed suddenly. It prefers alot of light, and doesn't do well in the house at all, so best kept outside, in a greenhouse or in a conservatory long term.

I used to have one permanently planted outside, it used to go deciduous in a sheltered frost-free corner, then re-gain its leaves each year. Unfortunately it succumbed to last winter, but because we have dodged the big freeze this year, I am going to try again.

 

I know I responded to this but obviously did Preview and not Send ... :DOH:

I am sort of the Queen of Bougainvilleas ... I have one (very expensive) tri-colour Bonsai, one fireworks shrub and eight climbers. None are particularly in bloom at this moment and look disasterous. Some have leaves and some don't. We have had a particularly mild winter with no rain. We were out for lunch today and I made a point of looking at other people's Bougies ... and they looked as bad, if not worse than mine.

I haven't, and won't read 37 pages about them ... because I probably know all there is to know after all these years. What I know is they only bloom on current year's growth so heavy pruning is needed. As far as here goes, they need no feeding (only promotes excessive leaf growth and no 'blooms', ie, 'coloured brachts'. Mine, and certainly all in this area, grow in heavy red clay with no feeding.

So, that's it from the land of Bougainvilleas ... :yess:

 

Makes me very jealous Victoria , I remember the stunning Bouganvilleas when I was on the Algarve last October. The little standard Sanderiana below is the one I hope to maintain through a northern UK winter Its as big as I can maintain :(
This was taken last April when we bought it . I would love to have one climbing a white sunbathed wall.................we can dream :happydance:
They are a stunning plant.

 

I planted a purple one in the garden next to my strelitzia last spring, its kept its leaves all winter.
It only flowered sparsely at the end of the summer, but grew some long shoots. The flowers lasted well into November.

I've retained a cutting in a pot in the greenhouse along with an orange one, both are now leafless, but then they are very dry.

I tend to think leaf loss might have more to do with soil moisture rather than temperature.

Not sure how hard to cut back my out door one as I was thinking of growing it with the lower half protected during winter and allowing the new growth to go up the wall and hopefully flower late summer.

 

Hiya Harry

Here are a few pics of mine ... my pride and joy Bonsai, the shrub, one outside the guest room window and one I am just training over the gates ...









... and here it is mingling with the Oleander, which you may also remember ...






They all look the same or similar colour, but I have purple, pink, burgundy, white, orange and other strange shades.

If you ever come back Harry, you know you are welcome.

 

Victoria - I love your Bougainvilleas especially that big one. I think mine has some way to go yet. :D

I have read all 37 pages (well almost!) with interest. To save everyone doing so I thought I might summarise some of his points here. I know nothing about the subject other than what I have just read coupled with a bit of Googling – so please let me know if something is untrue or misleading and I will alter it.

Overview

Bougainvilleas are native to South America. Experts vary on how many species there are – between 4 and 18. However most plants that we see are complex hybrids of these species. They are woody, thorny vines that can climb from 1 to 12 meters. The flowers themselves are small and insignificant, but what we see and admire are the coloured bracts, which can be in a range of colours. They are tender so in the UK it will be normal to grow them in pots.

Compost

Bougainvilleas like to be in soil that is moist but well drained. A pot filled with garden soil doesn’t satisfy this requirement, nor does pure compost. A suitable mix would be two thirds multipurpose compost and one third perlite though you could probably substitute sharp sand for the perlite. It likes a pH of 6 to 6.5.

Aspect

Bougainvillea loves sun and needs 5 hours or more per day. It can thrive under more shady circumstances, but may not flower.

Flowering

It grows in two separate phases – vegetative and flowering. Each can last for several weeks. During the vegetative phase it will grow stems and leaves, and if there is enough light it will grow flower buds as well. It blooms on the new year’s growth and during the flowering period there will be no vegetative growth. It likes to flower when day and night are roughly equal, which means the spring and autumn. But in tropical regions it can flower almost nonstop all year round. Because of the light requirement it doesn’t flower well inside as a house plant. It flowers best when it is potbound, so don’t repot unless you have to. Beware of the fact that the roots are very fragile.

Watering

When its young and in active growth Bougainvillea likes quite a bit of water. But once established its fairly drought tolerant. It hates to sit in water so don’t put a saucer under the pot. Wait till the surface of the compost dries out before watering.

Feeding

It seems to like some feeding, but not too much. The author suggests every 2 weeks with a balanced feed like Miraclegrow, when its in active growth. You can still feed in winter if its not dormant, but at 4 to 6 week intervals.

Pruning

After its flowered it’s a good idea to prune it, for two reasons. It mostly flowers on the new year’s growth, and new shoots only appear near the tops of the stems. So without any pruning there is a danger that the flowering portion could rise higher and higher up the plant. Another aspect is that it tends to have a strong leader and few side shoots if left to itself. So it pays to pinch out the leading tip of newly acquired plants. And probably needs regular pinching out. You can prune mildly several times a year, and a hard prune is recommended once a year.

Overwintering

Whilst the article said that Bougainvillea is not hardy and will take almost no frost, GC members have reported that they have overwintered outside in the UK in a mild winter. There are two ways to overwinter it – dormant or active. If the temperature is very low (only a few degrees above freezing) it goes dormant and loses all its leaves. In this state it doesn’t need any light or water, so you could keep it in a garage which was frost free. The other method is inside the house where it is warmer. In this case it will keep its leaves and needs more light and some water and even some fertilizer as it will continue to grow slowly.

Propagation

You can propagate by seed or by cuttings. Some hybrids are sterile, in which case you must use the cutting method. There are two ways – hardwood and softwood. You take hardwood cuttings, which don’t have any leaves, typically in the winter when its cold. In the summer when its warm and the plant is in active growth you can take cuttings from the soft stems. You do soft wood cuttings in the normal way, pushing them into compost and then covering with a polythene bag to keep the humidity level up. Hardwood cuttings take about 4 months and softwood about 3.

Breeding

This is often done from ‘sports’. A sport is a single stem that spontaneously produces a different colour or shaped flower. To perpetuate this sport you must take cuttings from this part of the plant.

 

What can I say Victoria - stunning display The bonzai one has 3 colours lovely, but my favourite is the reddy one growing up the white wall - just the place to drink a nice cold bottle of Super Bock !

Peter , thanks for the precis on the care document 37 pages is a bit much to wade through ! So it is possible to keep them in a cold garage without light - it is attached to the house so would possible get down to 2°c

 

The info says they will hardly take a frost, mine have seen cold winters with frosts and only being killed off completely at -5c.
Yours are stunning Vicky.
My Orange ones are now flowering and the dwarf variegated ones are refoliating now on my kitchen window sill.
Where we live now is much more frosty with colder nights so I don't think I'll bother trying to keep them outside any more.

 

Interesting Strongy. I was summarising what the original article said, ie 4 hours of frost will kill it. But that's clearly not the case. Have you successfully overwintered them outside?

Even before I read the article I assumed that they couldn't be overwintered outside in the UK. But then I am in Yorkshire where -5C is a warm day. :D

 

Like I said earlier on in the post, I had some success overwintering for a few years outside. They would require fleece and they would defoliate, but they soon grew back in Spring. Only the severe December temperature killed off my B. glabra.

These also come into bract very easily, I often see they will only come into bract and flower in the brightest light, well I don't think this is necessarily the case, it will also come out in relative shade.

 

I took pics of the pink, I have them on C-D somewhere.

Your Images are lovely Vicky and Harry.