Bougainvilliea

[matlea]

Hi all... thought I'd post this bougy up shown after a quick trim and wire down of a few branches. height 320mm
I like it when all the leaves are off but looks a bit scruffy otherwise... probably because it's fairly small and it doesn't take much to get out of control. - sorry foe the soft pics too.

The frustrating thing is that it has only ever flowered a couple of times and when it has it only had one or two 'flowers'. Hopefully this year with some rose fertiliser it will bloom... I've read on the web that it should only be watered sparingly and should also recieve plenty of sun.... anyone with experience with these have any tips
9what to do or not to do) to make it flower?

[Bougy Fan]

I water mine the same as any other plant - once a day all year round with extra watering in summer. Feed it heaps of chook poo and it should flower. It may not be warm enough down your way to get profuse flowering ?

[kcpoole]

Garn Bougy, it gods country here and bougies folwer well One of mine flowered all thru winter and only finished afew weeks ago when I cut it all back hard.

Like you do, I water same as all my other trees, but they live in Full sun year around.
I cut back hard to control it and trim the growing tips all thru summer.

repot them all in Spring when it warms up too.

Ken

[Bougy Fan]

No way Jose - up here the only frost we worry about is in the freezer

[matlea]

Thanks for the advice ken. Was worried if the trimming was stopping it flowering... I'll just do the tips, and bougy looks like chook poo will get a go... Maybe it was lacking in fertiliser... In any case thanks for the tips guys. Hopefully the next update on this one will be with flowers!

[Bougy Fan]

Actually you do have to let it go to get flowers - they only flower on new growth, not old wood. So if you have been constantly cutting back new growth it won't flower as well. Be careful with some chemical ferts - if you overdo it the tree will drop all it's leaves in a day. Something high in K (Potassium) will help with flowers

[matlea]

That could be the main issue! Thanks again.

[Andrew F]

Beautiful bougie, the days are up to the 20's now here, am i right to repot, prune and wire my bougy?

[kcpoole]

Beautiful bougie, the days are up to the 20's now here, am i right to repot, prune and wire my bougy?

I wait till the nights get above 15. Same with Figs

Ken

[Jarrod]

I find mine love water, and to get good flowering I have found pot bound trees have more bracts. Also, a thing I have worked out over the lastfew seasons was to prune it hard at tge start of autumn, before winter giving it enough time to reshoot before it stops growing. This should give it some new growth within the outline of the tree when the bracts form!

[matlea]

Thank Jarrod, have not potted for a couple of years so ok there... I think it might be the combination of trimming and a fert too high in nitrogen that is my problem... Thanks again.

[GavinG]

I like you bougy Matlea, please post it when it flowers.

It's none of my business, but I think the back view works very well - it doesn't have one side opposing the other, so to speak. It's hard to tell from photos of course...

Gavin

[matlea]

I try to do the trees 'in the round' rather than wide spread but not much depth. I hope it does flower!!!