Caught up with my kids today and they gave me an early Mother's Day present- a bougainvillea bonsai! I know very little about bonsai and I am terrified that i will kill it. So I trawled the net and thankfully found you guys. It's in a blue glazed bowl about 4'' by 5'' and is approx. 6'' tall. It was bought from a bonsai shop in Melbourne's outer west. The attached card is a bit vague as to the bonsai's care. Liquid fertiliser once a month- what sort? And how much? Water moderately and keep moist. Does that mean use a spray bottle and spray a mist over it daily or every second day? Part shade in a sheltered position- so I keep it outside in a protected area? (I thought they were an inside plant for some reason).
Any information will be greatly appreciated. I so want it to do well and can't wait till it flowers.
Cheers and thanks in advance,
Jilly6
P.S. Live in Bairnsdale East Gippsland (Vic.)if location is an important factor
Hi Jill and welcome to the forum. As I come from sunny Queensland I am not sure how your bougy will do down there - it is a tropical plant. It will need sun and warmth - depending how cold it gets you may need to cover it or bring it indoors. I'm sure they don't like frost. Even though bougys usually like it dry you need to keep the soil moist - like all bonsai if the soil dries out fully it can die. Just water it when needed with a watering can with a fine rose. Don't keep watering it if the soil is moist - otherwise the roots will rot. Do you know what colour the bracts are ? Good luck.
Tony
Regards Tony
"The problem with quotes found on the Internet is that it's hard to be sure of their authenticity." Abraham Lincoln
Bougy Fan wrote:Hi Jill and welcome to the forum. As I come from sunny Queensland I am not sure how your bougy will do down there - it is a tropical plant. It will need sun and warmth - depending how cold it gets you may need to cover it or bring it indoors. I'm sure they don't like frost. Even though bougys usually like it dry you need to keep the soil moist - like all bonsai if the soil dries out fully it can die. Just water it when needed with a watering can with a fine rose. Don't keep watering it if the soil is moist - otherwise the roots will rot. Do you know what colour the bracts are ? Good luck.
Tony
Bouganvillea are rather hardy. I was in Launceston in January, and took this picture of a boug in flower
Boug 2.jpg
If they can grow outdoors and unprotected in Launceston, I think they will grow most anywhere.
Glenda
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"Knowledge is not a heavy thing to carry around" - JB Taylor (my father)
"The more you learn the more you earn" - JB Taylor
"There are exceptions to every rule, but to be an exception, you must first be exceptional" - Me
You should be fine unless you get lots of frosts and freezes. I f you do, just give it some shelter and try to keep in a warm sunny Spot tho
Bougies do not like to be kept wet at all, so water it only whent eh soil start to feel nearly dry or the new growth tips start to droop.
At the moment I am watering my Bougs only every second day, and will drop back to every 3 days soon.
I summer ( when we get a couple of hot days), i water daily
Liquid feed I use "Charlie Carp" on mine once fortnight in summer and monthly in winter.
I trim and prune to shape only when it starts to look ratty and growth is getting long, then cut back to 2 leaves on each branch
It depends on how big is your boug. If they are still small, feed it well and leave it in the ground for sometime. When they are big, you may only need to feed them twice a year. I got the advice from the neighbour who grows the bougs I posted pics in the thread: viewtopic.php?f=133&t=2131&hilit=+my+neighbour
Always we hope someone else has the answer. Bonsai is an art of shrinking.
welcome to the forum, you will find it help full and informative with friendly people to boot
glenda, i beleive growing them in the ground in launceston would be completly different then trying to grow them in a pot in launceston, in the ground they have protection from the cold by the soil, where as in a pot the roots would be more "exposed" to the chill and cold. that is what will do them over being in a pot down there. thats what i beleive anyways
good luck jilly feel free to post up some pics of your great mothers day present if you like! im sure some people would love to see it! (including myself )
jamie
SHOHIN YAKUZA!!! taking the top half of trees of since 2005!
and growing trees for the future generations! 50+ year plans
Wow Ken I still find it hard to get my head around how different the climate is down the east coast. Up here I am still watering once a day and will continue to throughout winter. During summer when I am home on a really hot day I sometimes water twice a day. Where I live we get westerly winds that always start up at ekka time and they are very drying to plants in pots. So a lot of times the westerlies are worse than the heat in summer. Do you get that down your way ?
Regards Tony
"The problem with quotes found on the Internet is that it's hard to be sure of their authenticity." Abraham Lincoln
i can cop that wind too bougy, i have sometimes had to water three times a day in the peaks of the heat and winds. especially using diatomite as a main medium! it can cause a lot of problems. im down to watering once a day now aswell and will be through out!
SHOHIN YAKUZA!!! taking the top half of trees of since 2005!
and growing trees for the future generations! 50+ year plans
Wow folk- thanks for all the great advice - and the warm welcome!
I put Bonnie ( had to name her- decided she's a girl because hopefully she will produce pretty flowers or bracts some time down the track) out in the dappled shade. She seems quite contented in her new home I gave her a good misty shower first.
We get maybe 4-5 frosts here in winter so will bring her inside then.
Apologies but just a few more questions.....
What if we have heavy rain- bring her inside?
Someone gave me a big bottle of concentrated worm casts- would this be a good fertiliser if I watered it down sufficiently?
Do I just keep the soil moist or do I spray mist the whole of the plant- leaves and trunk as well? One of my daughters has a bonsai Moreton Bay Fig and apparently this is what she does.
Bougainvillea- full size- grow really well here although i don't have one as I basically have a 'thorns-free' policy in my garden lol!
Tony I don't know what colour the bracts are supposed to be. It will be a nice surprise but I love all the colours.
Jamie I would put up a pic now but my photographic and IT skills are abysmal. One day when one of my 3 daughters are home (they all live in Melbourne) I will get them to teach me how to do it and post some for you. I have 2 boys living here but they are as IT illiterate as moi!
Again- thanks in advance good people- and hope all the mums are having a lovely Mother's Day
When I water, I use wateringt can with a fine head on it. I water the soil only ( I prefer to not get the foliage wet).
Water till water comes out the drain holes, leave for a few minutes and then repeat.
Worm casts will be a great fert. just mak sure you mix to the correct dilution and use your watering can.
Ken- thanks for the info.
It seems to me that a bonsai isn't that complicated as far as care goes as I had at first thought. (hope I don't have to eat those words somewhere off into the far horizon though..... )
Only bonsais that have been in the family is one that MIL annihilated pretty swiftly years ago and my daughter's Moreton Bay Fig- she's had it about 2+ years and I'm pretty sure it never goes outside. It gets sent off to the bonsai beauty parlour every 6 months for a haircut and pedicure and I think it is doing fine. I had to look after it for a short time once and the instructions were to give it a good misting top to toe daily from memory. I know I was paranoid I would kill it lol!
I will have to surf the net and find out what the correct ratio of worm casts to water is. I have used the worm casts on my garden a couple of times and sort of used the ratio one would use to make up cordial but this might be too strong for a bonsai.
Again thanks and Cheers,
Jilly6
WOW a MB fig that doesn't live outside ? Normally you only bring a bonsai inside for a couple of days - they are trees and should live outside. Must have the right kind of lighting. You will be trimming and rootpruning in no time. When you learn a bit more you can show her defoliating and pinching to reduce the leaf size Figs and bougys are great starters until you have a bit more confidence. Be careful - it can become very addictive
Regards Tony
"The problem with quotes found on the Internet is that it's hard to be sure of their authenticity." Abraham Lincoln
My apologies Bougy Fan. I rang to tell her about this great forum and it turns out DD #2 has a Port Jackson Fig not a Moreton Bay Fig Anyhow it turns out her BF bought her a book on bonsai and she now puts it out during the day and brings it inside at night. Given bonsai like the outdoors you wonder how her PJF survived and thrived for so long but it was always placed by a window and received plenty of sun and warmth I guess.
Lol! Dunno about me trimming and root-pruning my little beauty- think it will be regular trips to the bonsai beauty parlour for her! I'm a bit like that dude at the New York Stock Exchange who typed in billions instead of millions and sent the WW Stock Exhchange into a tailspin for several heart-stopping minutes last week. I too suffer from "fat-finger syndrome'
Dear Mrs 6, or can I call you Jilly? Here is an article which was written by Lee Wilson of Bonsai Artist-tree of Belrose in Sydney. This article was printed in our Club Newsletter and few issues ago. and I think would apply to Melbourne to a certain degree.
Cheers
John T
Bougainvillea in Sydney
By Lee Wilson
In the late spring, Sydney is ablaze with the colour as the exotic Bougainvillea shows forth its colourful bracts, seemingly all with the colours of a very vivid rainbow.
It is a native of South America and it is actually a vine, the original being Bougainvillea magnifica. The flowers themselves are really of no significance, being very tiny, off-white, cream shade. They are surrounded thought by bracts, which are magnificent in colour. The bract is neither a flower or a leaf, it is a colourful arrangement the flower has devised, to attract insects and moths to its uninteresting flowers for pollination. However, the bougainvillea will never have any fear of drying out, the reason being the plants are very rampant, can withstand long dry periods, and even if they do droop, a little water, and they are sitting upright again in about an hour.
Being very fast growers (in the right conditions I have seen them grow about 25cms a day), and also being a vine (they spread from the base of the plant with very long water shoots), they make very good bonsai subjects if you live in the right area.
I have seen them growing in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, where they get heavy frosts and snow, and also in the very dry, arid tablelands of Queensland, where they will make spectacular group plantings. So the myth about them being frost and drought tender leaves me to wonder should you always heed the advice in books! Whatever area you live in, with the correct attention, I am sure you should have success with them.
Now how do you bonsai a bougainvillea? The ideal thing to do is to be able to grow them in the ground. This way you can achieve a very thick trunk very quickly. Some of you may have already experimented, but found that your Bougainvillea died when you took it out of its pot or the ground. Yes, they are very prone to root disturbance and don't like it very much, but there are a few simple rules to follow to follow and I’m sure if you follow these you won’t have any failures.
The best way to start is either to get a container grown plant from a nursery, or grow your own from a cutting. I have had success all the year round from cuttings, but they recommend you take them in late summer, when the new growth has hardened and become firm, or in the spring.
I find it doesn’t matter very much as long as you use semi-hardwood cuttings and use a hormone rooting powder. Keep the cuttings moist, but don’t keep them wet, it is even better if you let them dry out a little or root rot will set in. It’s a good idea to spray cuttings with Benlate to control damping off. If you are using cuttings then select the best cutting then select the best cutting with which has some good shape to it, although it doesn’t matter too much because they are very easy to put into shape. If you are doing cuttings, put them in into 5cm tubes, so that when time comes for transplanting, the roots are not disturbed.
Rooting should take place in three to four weeks in November, December, January and February. In other months it will take six to eight weeks. Do not be tempted to take them out of the pot because you see new growth - this is very important. A Bougainvillea will send out new growth, but not necessarily roots - if you disturb it, you will lose it. Wait until you see good root growth coming from the bottom of the tube. The roots are very brittle at this stage, so be careful when removing it from the pot.
Dampen off the soil first, so it says firm when you remove it.
A good potting mixture to use for cuttings is three parts sand, one part peat, one part Vermiculite, and a sprinkling of Osmocote. After you have potted them, spray with water with Fongarid in it, leave in a warm sheltered position and try to keep up the humidity.
If the soil is dry, then it will fall away when you repot, because of the sand content. If you are starting afresh with either a cutting of your own, or nursery stock, you will usually find a stump where the cutting was taken. Try to get below there, so you can remove the ugly stump, and use the side growth to make your main leader. I let them grow whichever way they want, then remove the branches etc. I don’t need. If a water shoot grows from the base, let it grow for a metre or so, maybe 2 metres, then remove. This will help you to get a thick trunk very quickly.
Bougainvilleas can be used in most styles, the best ones being those that have grown in the ground, so you have a beautiful huge base, or trained as informal upright, slanting, semi-cascade or cascade styles.
So now you have your beautiful Bougainvillea, but how do you make it flower?
Very simply. Bougainvilleas will flower better when they are pot bound, but only flower on new growth, never on old growth. It is a perpetual job to pinch all the old shoots, so they develop side (lateral) branches. You will find that one season you will let the tree get out of shape, so you can have some flowers. Ah well, all is not lost.
Being very rampant growers, you can easily get three flowering sessions per season, by continually removing old flowers and shoots. (Last year we managed to get one outdoor stock to flower five times in one year).
They do become very pot bound very quickly so an advanced bonsai I would repot every year. I find I can repot at any time except the middle of Winter unless you have some special conditions for them. Remove any excess roots you don't need, like out of the bottom of the pot. Again, if you have to do a lot of excessive pruning, remove all of the foliage, but only once per year.
Don’t feed them on Aquasol. All you will get are lots of large green leaves and no flowers, but lots of growth.
We use Dynamic Lifter and find we have no need to use anything else.
There are now many varieties of Bougainvillea available. There are now literally hundreds of different varieties around, from miniatures to thornless ones, single bracts to double bracts. The choice is almost endless so why not try a few different kinds so you can experiment yourself.
To make a Bougainvillea flower, place it in full sun. The more sun, the more flowers. They do best if they face east to west so that the sun can get to one side in the morning and the other side in the afternoon.
I know very little about bonsai and I am terrified that i will kill it. So I trawled the net and thankfully found you guys. It's in a blue glazed bowl about 4'' by 5'' and is approx. 6'' tall. It was bought from a bonsai shop in Melbourne's outer west. The attached card is a bit vague as to the bonsai's care. Liquid fertiliser once a month- what sort? And how much? Water moderately and keep moist. Does that mean use a spray bottle and spray a mist over it daily or every second day? Part shade in a sheltered position- so I keep it outside in a protected area? (I thought they were an inside plant for some reason). 
taking the top half of trees of since 2005! 
Figs and bougys are great starters until you have a bit more confidence. Be careful - it can become very addictive 
