Bougainvillea

[Jon Chown]

A lot more ramification required but it sure adds colour to the courtyard display.

Bougainvillea.jpg

Yours in Bonsai
Jon

[Steven]

It's beautiful Jon, how long have you ben training her?

[Jon Chown]

I collected it in 1996 from a neighbour who was cutting it out of his fence line and when I got it it was just a stump that I potted into a styrofoam box and left for two years. Since then it has gone from Informal Upright to Semi Cascade and had its crown broken off when we got broken into back in 2000. Since the photo shown, I have cut it back by around 15cm all over to force some growth back. It's time I started working on improving the branching.

Yours in Bonsai
Jon

[schmik]

Looks great. I have one too... but it is tiny compared to that. Can't wait for it to flower.
Any tips on keeping the leaves compact. They can get a bit large.

mike

[Jon Chown]

Mike, I just remove all big leaves as they appear and once the branch has grown to my desired length I reduce the length by about one third to force new shoots further back - eventually you will get compact growth.

Yours in Bonsai
Jon

[Hector Johnson]

I prune back to the 2nd or 3rd shoot on Bougs, depending upon which direction I want the growth to point.