A beautiful garden adds a beautiful addition to one’s home. But it requires a lot of care and effort to nurture the plants and flowers in the garden to ensure their bloom.
While you can plant sunflowers, roses, and lilies, it is one of the most beautiful and low-maintenance spring plants that can add a beautiful addition to your garden is the bougainvillea.
Bougainvillaea is a beautiful, versatile, landscaping plant that grows in bushes, vines, Planters, vines, etc. Bougainvillea is a beautiful plant with pink and green foliage, resistance to a lot of diseases requires a little maintenance, and is very easy to take care of.
With the beautiful and colorful flowers, this is a plant that every gardener craves to grow.
So let’s dive into the article below, and find out the growing and caring guide of a Bougainvillea plant so that you can grow it in an effective manner.
Plant overview
Bougainvillea is thorny, tropical plant that grows in vines, bushes, and trees with fuchsia-colored bracts.
Being native to South America and some parts of Argentina, bougainvillea grows well in a warm climate. Besides their native places, the plants are also found in South Florida, Arizona, southern California, and South Texas.
Most of the species of bougainvillea have colorful bracts with different hues depending on the different cultivars. However, these bracts are used for the protection of the tiny white blooms that are the actual flower at the center, not for photosynthesis.
Bougainvillea is the hardy cover plant and grows as a ground cover, in a hanging basket, on a trellis, and also in a pot as a houseplant. Bougainvillea is drought tolerant, pest resistant, and easy to take care of. So growing this plant will be worth rewarding.
Varieties of Bougainvillaea Plant
There are more than 200 varieties of Bougainvillea plants in the world that are almost impossible to cover. So let’s find out the most common varieties of it.
Barbara karst
Barbara karst is one of the largest cultivars of the Bougainvillea plant that climbs up to 40 feet. This variety features clusters of reds and magenta bracts during the summer and fall.
California Gold
This variety of Bougainvillea got its name from the golden-yellow bracts it possesses, that surround the tiny white flowers.
This variety can grow up to 30 feet and can grow in trellis and arches. This variety bears flowers around the year but it possesses bracts only on and off throughout the year.
Sundown orange
The sundown orange is a popular variety of Bougainvillea that can grow up to the height of 20 feet.
The color of the bracts of this Bougainvillea changes as it matures, starting off from deep orange to deep coral colour and ending up with salmon pink coloured flowers.
Juanita Hatten
This variety of the Bougainvillea generally blooms in summer and attains 20 feet tall.
The distinguishing feature of this variety that differs it from the other is the fuchsia bracts and leaves with golden dots.
How to plant a Bougainvillea plant?
You can plant a Bougainvillea plant by the following procedure.
- Dig a hole in the ground as deep as the root ball of the Bougainville.
- Add a highly rich phosphorus fertilizer to the hole to promote root growth.
- Lift the plant from the pots and tickle the roofs.
- Place the root ball in the hole and place soil around the base of the plant.
- If you are planning to plant your Bougainville on a trellis, make sure to plant it near a structure.
- If you are growing the Bougainvillea in a pot, make sure to choose a pot with a lot of drainage holes in it to prevent root rot.
How to care for the Bougainvillea plant?
As we discussed earlier, the Bougainvillea is an easy-to-grow plant that requires no care. But taking a little care of the plant can nourish you with a healthy, beautiful, rich growth of the plant and adds an additional beauty to your garden.
Sunlight
Bougainvillea is considered as the full sun plant. They grow well when they get full sunlight.
Bougainvilleas love heat and they require at least six hours of full sunlight a day it can handle even the hottest heat of summers.
If you want your plant to produce an abundance of flowers, make sure that it gets direct sunlight. Sometimes the bougainvillea can struggle to bloom, it’s because they aren’t receiving proper light, which can cause the plant to look thin and sparse.
So if you are planning to plant it, consider planting it in the sunniest place to maximize the blooms.
Soil
The Bougainvillea grows in loose, gritty and slightly acidic soil. Some places have the natural soil that is perfect for the growth of these plants, but if you don’t have the right pH of the soil, you can increase and lower it by adding some potting mix to it.
If you are growing your plant in the pot, fill up your pot with a lot of soil so that the roots of the plant can spread well but don’t fill it up with too much soil otherwise it will retain soil and will be the symbol of root rot.
While you are planting your Bougainvillea, be mindful about your root balls as it is quite fragile Until the plants are well established.
Temperature
Bougainvilleas are tropical plants and they prefer to grow in warmer climates. However, The established vines can withstand colder temperatures in the winter months.
However, bougainvilleas thrive well in the hardiness zones 9 and above, so if temperatures drop below 30 degrees Celsius, bring your plant home.
Fertilizer
Generally, Bougainvillea is the heavy feeder. If you want new growth and fantastically vivid growth, fertilize your plant regularly throughout the growing season.
If you are considering using fertilizer, use a slow-release fertilizer one time or apply a water-soluble fertilizer every seven to fourteen days. Besides, you can surround your plant with compost if your plant is looking a little limp.
Water
Water your Bougainvillaea plant once a week after you plant it until it becomes established in the ground, which generally takes up to three years.
Once the plants are established, you need to water your plant if there are drought conditions, where the plant eliminates the natural soil moisture.
How to repot your plant?
Bougainville is well known for its rapidly growing property. So they require regular repotting to ensure the proper growth of the plant and not overgrowth from the pot.
Following is the procedure to repot your plant.
- Remove the plant from the base by grasping the stem
- Slide your Bougainvillea plant out of the container.
- Rinse your container with water and remove any unwanted debris in the container.
- Fill a new container with the required soil of 3 inches.
- Plant your Bougainville in the potting mix.
- Water your plant to make the soil moist.
Conclusion
The bougainvillea plant is a beautiful addition to any landscape. This show stopping beauty produces constant bloom that inspires garden envy.
As you read the article this far, you might get the idea of how to grow and care for a Bougainvillea plant.
So plant this beautiful tree in your garden or as a houseplant and increase the beauty of your house.
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