Bouganville shrub

I was given twelve cuttings approx six inches long from four different coloured bougainville? shrubs and told that I was to put them into builders sand and keep them damp. I decided to try play sand and all twelve have started to produce leaves. Do I just leave them untill well established or shall I repot them into a soil/sand mixture? If leave them, do I need to add feed?

 

Hi again, rockpebbler! I obviously grow Bougainvillea here and have seven, six climbing and one bush.

However, my conditions are obviously very different than your and I really cannot give you any advice here. Certainly they do not require "feeding" here, they survive in the most horrid circumstances, in fact.

What I can tell you is that they take several years to establish outside, even here, and only "bloom" ie it's brachts not flowers, on current year's growth.

One of our "med" experts, pete, lives in your area and will no doubt come on later and assist you with your queries.

Good luck with them and keep us posted.

 

I dont class myself an expert really LOL, especially on bougies.
I am have more sucsess this year though I must admit.
A tricky one rockpebblar, they are producing leaves so we can assume they are producing roots I hope.
I think if it was me I would carefully pot them up into a compost as Marley suggests.
Into 3.5in pots and hope to overwinter them in these. Its getting a bit late now so overpotting might cause them to rot through the winter.

 

I do mine in three and a half inch pots in peat/silver sand mix sealed in polythene bags or in a propagator and kept at 72c min. usually showing roots at the bottom within three weeks and grown on in the greenhouse

 

Thank you for your replies LoL/Pete/MF/strongylodon,
I was worried re rotting in wetness of sand as the area they came from has virtually no soil content. would it be wise to restrict the amount of water I give them and just keep them slightly damp as opposed to wet? I have them in my porch but am now thinking of putting them into my airing cupboard as the temperature can go from 100 to 50 during the day.

 

Thank you for the link MF have bookmarked the page for future use, I will stop overwatering the cuttings and hope for the best

 

I think the airing cupboard will be too dark.
Having now seen your pic I would not suggest my method as I have only used softwood cuttings. I have not tried hardwood.

 

Do they have roots rockpebblar?
Hardwood cuttings can shoot 'new' growth but still not have any roots.
I also would not go for the airing cupboard method.

 

Hello again Pete
had the misfortune to knock out one of the cuttings and when removed it had no roots so was and is a bit worried. The "cuttings" were given to me by the head gardener of a safari lodge I recently visited who gave me the instructions to put them in sand.
I will obtain a couple of large clear plastic bags and place both containers in them and leave in the strong sunlight during the day and bring in during the night.

 

Not sure about this rockpebblar.
Strong sun and a plastic bag will cook them.
The ideal, I guess, would be bottom heat from a propagator, with some humidity, but not soaking wet all the time.

 

Point taken Pete, Havent got a propagator but will look around for something to serve as one, have stopped watering them so sand will be allowed to dry out to a dampish nature. To be quite honest I never expected them to even "shoot" so if I get even one or two to survive I will be quite chuffed! I really must get some literature about how to take cuttings and what they require to grow. Im always grabbing seeds and cuttings from my various travels and from your advice I feel my policy of "shoving them in water" is not the best way forward. Will keep you informed re the outcome. Thanks again Pete