Okay, I'm not the best photographer, but the plant is beautiful.
So, I decided to take a chance on getting a bougainvillea since I've moved to a slightly more hospitable climate. I could leave it in a pot and put it in the greenhouse every winter but I'd really rather plant it permanently outside. Has anyone in my area (8a or 8b) had any luck? If so, what did you do to protect the plant during the winter?
Most require Zone 9 or above. Check the PlantFiles for yours.
My mom lives in zone 9 (Calif bay area) and she still has to spray hers with cloud cover every time the temps get low or it dies back to the ground. After years of diligent spraying, it's gorgeous.
Gwen
Hmmm ... looks like I'll be moving my bougainvillea into a bigger pot when the time comes and making a spot for it in the green house for the winter. I love it anyway!
Ah the stages of bougainvillea love - With appologies to Ms Kubler Ross
Denial / infatuation: I love your beautiful pink bracts. You are perfect for me and I know that if I love you enough, you will change & become hardy in my zone. Home Depot wouldn't tempt me with you if you weren't hardy here. After all they have a 1 year guarantee on their plants. Maybe if I'm really careful and mulch you, you'll make it through the winter.
Bargaining: O.K. I'll give you a bigger pot and make room for you among my other tender loves in the greenhouse. Certainly you'll reward all of my work on our relationship by thriving.
Depression: Golly, I just keep giving and giving and you just don't care. Why oh why don't you love me like I love you?
Anger / You don't bring me flowers anymore: I've given you the best year of my life, a prominent place in my greenhouse and you repay me by becoming a whitefly-infested twig with one leaf. Round - Up is too good for you. You can go directly to the compost heap for all I care!
Acceptance / it's only zone 8: Well, you were beautiful and I enjoyed our time together. Now I know that you are an expensive annual and I'll enjoy you for what you are. You are more of a Paris Hilton than an Oprah Winfrey - Pretty at first blush but with nothing intelligent to say that would hold my attention for long. Thanks for the summer fling.
LOL Herpst, you are singing my song.
Okay, okay, I'm in the "Bargaining" stage. I generally skip "Depression," go quickly through "Anger" and slide easily into "Acceptance." Actually, at $6.00 I started out looking at it as an expensive annual, but I firmly believe all gardeners are unashamed optomists! :-)
Wow! $6.00 is not bad at all even if you only get one season of enjoyment out of it. My gardening guru in Alaska ordered hybrid tea roses every year (not at all hardy there). She was successful at wintering some over in a huge hole beneath her greenhouse some years but even if they didn't survive, she rationalized that since to have a dozen roses flown in cost $50 - $75 (years ago), that she was actually saving money by buying the bushes. Most of the inexpensive grocery store mixed cut flower offerings cost at least $5.00 and last only a week or two. See how thrifty you are for spending only $6.00 for something that will last all season.
mzweazelle - I have successfully wintered over Bouganvilleas & for $6, it's worth a try. I am 20 min east of Seattle zone 7 or 8 depending on how I feel...
Amortize the cost out over a year - then you won't have any angst while vacillating in the acceptance mode. Works for me every time!
Hi Katye
Up until September 23rd of last year I lived a few miles further out than you (North Bend) and would never even have tried to keep one. What do you do with yours to keep them healthy?
PS -- Herpst: :-P
closest I can come to a bronx cheer :-)
This message was edited Aug 16, 2006 10:13 PM
I kept mine inside under lights by a southern exposure window. The temperature in the room was never below 45 - 50 degrees & heated by woodstove. I rinsed it in the shower a couple times - but I never noticed any insects. I cut it back by 1/3 the next spring, and it looked pretty nice that summer. I had previously grown them on the Big Island, so my expectations weren't high. But like most things, plants have a comfort zone. I figured that if I was comfortable, so would the Bougainvillea. Accomodating them can at times be a challenge, particularly space-wise. However, it was worth the time as a learning experience, and I'll do it again.
If you like them - give it a go!
Herpst, you and Katymac and I would make beautiful music together. Are you in the same profession as I am?
Now, at 6$ that is not what I would consider an expensive annual. Heck, I spent 4 times that last year for a tangerine colored hibiscus that called my name at Lowes, knowing full well it was a siren song and I was about to crash onto the rocks for good. Naturally, it's dead now. And I don't care. You HEAR ME?? I DON'T CARE!! I LOVED THAT PLANT TO DEATH FOR AN ENTIRE SEASON AND IT WAS WORTH EVERY MINUTE! Here is a photo for your consideration and commiseration. ( If I had found another one this year, I would have bought it again and put it with my cannas. )
I'm sure MzWeazelle feels the same about the glorious bouganvillea. It is a most astounding shade of pink! Really an entirely attractive plant!!
You are so close to zone nine, I would try a microclimate. How about planted next to a nice warm wall that reflects sunlight?? Then, if we were to get a terrible freeze like we got last year, you could just create a cozy little plastic tent for it- like its own little greenhouse- attached to the wall until the bad weather goes away. It could work! Take a cutting and start another one just in case it doesn't.
Hi Pixydish et al,
For $6.00, I would grab several. The ones I've seen 'round these parts are in five gallon pots and about $20.00. Not that I too haven't spent more than that on single-season plants. Like the year that I decided that filling in all the late summer holes in my beds with crotons was a great idea. It was quite lovely, really & they WERE on sale. I always have some colorful bromiliads lurking around outside for the summer & we've had the brugmansia, echiveria, aeonium chat. Did I mention that some years I've even wintered potted cannas inside as houseplants to get a jump start on the following season. It's a sickness, I tell you.
I don't share your profession but I do have a copy of the DSM IV if you'd like to debate diagnoses of some of our DG friends. You know, flowers are the reproductive organs of plants. The bloom cycle is plant sex pure and simple. One wonders what Freud might have to say about people who perseverate on such an activity. Hmmm. Perhaps sometimes a flower is just a flower. Perhaps we suffer from plant voyeurism. (oh, not me...I'm a...foliage kind of guy...That's it... A foliage guy...um...person... and I...uh...love the whole plant not just it's...uh...um...well, you know...privates...you know...O.K. I'll say it - BLOOMS, FLOWERS, BEAUTIFUL BIG FLORIFEROUS OFFERINGS, STAMENS, PISTILS, PETALS, AAAAAAAANTHERS...um...please excuse me. I seem to have...well...gotten off topic...and somehow got lilly pollen on my nose. But I don't have a PROBLEM. Really.
really...
Katye, thanks for the suggestions. The back of my trailer faces almost directly south and I had considered making a special place for it where I could easily tent the plant when needed. Otherwise I'll put it in a nice big pot and keep it in the greenhouse, which I plan to keep heated to at least 40 and gets lots of sun.
Herpst, I think you should call Pixydish immediately and make a standing weekly appointment to discuss that problem you don't have! Maybe twice a week to start?
While I don't doubt Pixydish's ability as a therapist, I wonder if it would be healthy for the two of us to be discussing plant lust issues. I think we'd be bad influences on each other and wind up ending the sessions early to sneak off to some nearby nursery to sate our green longings. It would start innocently enough - perhaps we'd just do mail order from B & D lillies but soon it would have control of us. We'd tell people that we were going out to run an errand and clandistinely meet in the concrete area of Home Depot to pick up just one more bag of portland cement. Before you know it, we'd be making field trips to tawdry places like Half Price Pots. Oh the shame. Soon, our credit cards would be maxed out and we'd be pawning belongings to get one more perennial. We'd beg on street corners with cardboard signs that would say, "will work for agapanthus". People would occasionally give us a few dollars which would allow us to shop the sale area at the KMart nursery - the one in Lakewood - I'm afraid. I'm very afraid.
Herpst, I'm a bit afraid too! LOL There, there. Have a nice cup of chamomile tea and meditate on compost for a while. It's going to be okay.
You are so right! Why pretend? Why the charade? I think you've hit on something Pixydish! We should become professional plant shoppers/concrete mavens. We could sell people yard art, plants & plans. Everything except the labor. For an additional charge, we could sub contract that out. I can just see it now. Sick of the humdrum Pacific Northwest style - a deodora cedar, two rhododendrons, and a couple of sword ferns? Ready for something different? Always wanted a garden rather than just a yard? Call Pixyherpst (sort of sounds like Sissinghurst) dream garden creators. Do you want to live in a jungle? The desert? A grassy meadow speckled with jewel - toned wildflowers? A peaceful forest retreat? A whimsical garden full of bigger-than-life surprises? We can make your dream a reality for you right here in the south sound!
Oh Pixydish, just think of it - we could shop for plants and make artwork all the time. Of course, we'd have to eventually get our own large greenhouse to grow plants from wholesale plug trays. We could even offer a "winter over" service for our clients who absolutely need brugmansias, etc. in their gardens but have no place to winter them. Because the greenhouse would need to stay above 50 degrees, we could use a corner of it to create with concrete year round. My head is spinning.
Of course all of this would be for the benefit of others. We are nothing if not altruistic.
This message was edited Aug 17, 2006 11:50 AM
KatyMac,
Oooh, compost. Gentle, dark, earthy compost..aah...yes, that's it...so calming...
Thanks for the help!
It must be the NORTHWEST air.
Viv
MzW. every year I spend a good bit of my garden budget on expentive annuals... and I love every minute of it.. one of these years.. they will live thru the winter... LOL (dreamer)
this year I finally 'got it' through my head that the answer to filling those holes in the garden is simply buying lovely, zone-denial plants! Now, consider Mzw's beauty up at the top of this thread. I'm thinking I can see one of those doing quite well next to the winter jasmine next year. Or maybe climbing among one of the climbing roses. I once thought I was getting a variegated one in a trade from Kaleem, in Pakistan, but that was when I was ignorant of the department of Homeland security. Said plant was confiscated from the box. I found out the rules the hard way, but that's the story of my life.
What have you decided to do with your beauty, MzW?
Haven't made a final decision, and if I follow my usual pattern it will probably be the day after the first frost before I do! Right now I'm leaning toward playing it safe and moving it into the greenhouse for the winter. I expect to maintain a minimum of 40 degrees, so frost tender plants should be safe but none will be exposed to the extremely artificial conditions in the house. If all goes well this winter I may try taking some cuttings for insurance and planting the big vine outside on the south side of the house.
So what do you suppose Homeland Security was worried about? Hard to hide explosives, etc., in a plant!
Yes, this is exactly what I thought about the 'homeland security' stamp on the outside of the empty box that was delivered to my door. I was then informed that somehow the dept of agriculture falls underneath the 'homeland security' moniker.
That reminds me of a very funny t-shirt that I saw for sale at the Portland Saturday Market. It sported an old photo of 4 Native Americans in full native dress, on horses, with shotguns. They looked like Sioux or some other plains tribe. The caption said 'Department of Homeland Security: Defending this country against terrorists since 1492". I thought it was extremely smart!
Yeah, unfortunately they lost and the terrorists swarmed across the country like locusts!
Mine should be in France, and my husband's in England. Hey, I think we're on to something here. lol
Well, using Solomon's wisdom, perhaps those of us who are mutts should be cut into pieces and one piece could be sent to each country of origin. I think that it would be a little difficult to find Americans who have been here for even a few generations who could say that they are 100% anything.
Sorry Sol, I'm not volunteering for dismemberment. How about I have my kids divide and ship my ashes off to my various points of origin AFTER I've finished gardening permanently? Ugh! Good luck with your bougainvillea MzW, if you're successful I may get brave and try something more tropical along a south facing wall. I've noticed nearly all our weather comes from the S/SW direction so plants along the south of building don't need watered near as often as those against the north walls. Even in winter those areas can get pretty dry.
Herpst:
I hold Solomon in pretty high regard, but I'm not volunteering either. I'm 1/4 French, 1/4 Danish, 1/4 Swedish and 1/4 Heinz 57. I'm a big girl, but I don't think there'd be enough of me to cover all the places I'm "from."
KatyMac:
I made a decision yesterday. Moved my bougie into a pot big enough to keep it happy for a while and it will be spending the winter in the greenhouse. I'll be crossing my fingers and toes until Spring!
My baby's new home. Not a NYC condo, but it'll have to do.
I hope it lives,,, I want one too. Its so pruddy!!
Gorgeous! (and the plant's not bad either) I love these & am always tempted by them in the stores. Let us know how it does.
MzW: They aren't too high-maintenance: just keep it from getting cold & too dry (soil/air). Mine did well - want more! need greenhouse! (this is becoming my mantra....)
Oh boy, I'm slow on this thread and am cracking up laughing as well as enjoying the plant fodder.
Herpst to Pixy —
"I don't share your profession but I do have a copy of the DSM IV if you'd like to debate diagnoses of some of our DG friends."
Boy, I'd be sure to wager that many of us have an obsessive complex when it comes to plants. ;-)
I am glad to report that I have been very good and haven't bought any plants since the PNW Snohomish Nursery gathering. However, I do need to go use my $50 credit at a local nursery and have been avoiding doing so as I know I will end up spending more. LOL!
MzWeaz, that sure is a pretty bougainvillea. I bet you might also like this one. Though not a bougainvillea, it has leaves that are flowery/interesting. I found it at the Machias Nursery in Snohomish - picked up two for ~$2/each. Now, for the name -- I need to get the tag from the shed and look it up again; it's an ornamental herb.
Very interesting tiffanya. I'll be waiting to hear what it's called.
that looks like an ornamental oregano - mine did not make it through the winter outdoors & I was bummed. :O(
But I bet they'd do really well in a GH!
