Developing Bougainvillea

Bart Thomas(deceased)

I have two (smaller, 1 - 1 1/2" trunk) bougies that I am trying to develop here in NJ. They spend their winters in Soli's greenhouse. so she gets to enjoy most of the flowers.


I can live with the conflict between flowering and shape, although I wonder at the show trees with all their blooms so close to the main foliage (How's that done?), but I get frustrated at the difficulty of getting consistent blooming outdoors during our summers.

I am keeping them relatively dry and in as much sun as possible.

I live in a townhouse condo, with North, East, and West exposure.
The east side is open to the street, so I don't want to put anything conspicuous out there.

On the North side, I can get far enough from the building so that I can get full sun from 9 AM to sunset. (They live on top of the barbeque grill , for that extra bit of height to stay out of the building shadow )

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Here's the first: A Pink Pixie

Attached Images

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Bart Thomas(deceased)

And here's the other:

A magenta bougie that I got from Jim Moody.

(It didn't bloom in the greenhouse!)

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dbz12fan

Bart,
My trick to getting the blooms close to the foliage is to imagine a the tirangle which the foliage should be shaped into. Then, imagine the triangle 1/2 inch smaller on all sides. Remove all foliage outside of this triangle. Continually do this every time that you prune. This way, when the tree blooms, it will finish the line of the triangle and stay close to the foliage.

__________________
"Success demands understanding"-Andy Rutledge

Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

dbz12fan

Tree one is not close to being finished yet, so do not worry about the blooms yet. Worry more about achieving the final triangle.

Tree two is closer to being finished. You should clip the foliage back hard, however, to allow for better ramification. Once the ramification is achieved, then you can worry about the blooms.

__________________
"Success demands understanding"-Andy Rutledge

Charles Bevan
Vero Beach, Fl

Bart Thomas(deceased)

Tree one lost its whole apex due to a branch death (probably overstressed lifeline into it) , so we are redeveloping it completely after giving it some time to recuperate.

Agree on tree two.

Thanks for the tips.

Jerry Meislik

Charles is right on as usual. Relentless pruning back to a shape slightly smaller than the final shape. Giving the blooms that little bit of room to finish out the canopy.
Jerry

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Jerry Meislik
Whitefish Montana USA
Zone 4-5
http://www.bonsaihunk.us/

Bart Thomas(deceased)

You mean HARD , as though it were a (non benjamina) ficus? From the posts on your huge trunk project, it looks as though the answer is "not quite".

I think that may be our problem. Up here in the nawth, we usually cut back to the first pair of leaves, feeling the need to leave some green "to draw the sap", as with maples.

If you can cut back that hard in April in FLA, it's probably okay to do that in June in NJ. Specially with a greenhouse winter.