What's the scoop with Bougainvillea?

Hi, I'm looking for advice on growing bougainvillea. I've got a rough spot for any plant. It's in a bed surrounded by brick and up against a dark wood wall in full blazing sun. The reflected heat is intense and I've had more than a few failures in this spot, since the sun burns the leaves. Most recently I've tried a passion flower vine and a black-eyed susan vine, both were marginal at best. So would bougainvillea do well here? At times it will also have wet feet, as I have to water this area a lot. Some of the successes for this area include day lilies, a giant philodendrum and a couple natal plums. The vine is in the back on a trellis to add some height. The photo is of the variety I was thinking of trying. Thanks for any advise! Christina

Hmmmmmmmm.....they do take a lot of space, even the so-called dwarf varieties and you will get your best color by having it dry, not wet.

Bougies should do OK with the sun/heat in that spot, but they don't like wet feet--not sure if wet feet will kill it, but just like azreno said they won't bloom well unless they're on the dry side (I generally don't ever water my bougies in the summer once they're established).

ok, thank you. Maybe I'll try to block off the sprinkler for this one and see how it does. I just picked one up called pink dream, couldn't find a small purple one and I'm too lazy to dig a giant hole. (while trying not to squish the daylilies) :)

One other watchout--is this bed fairly narrow and right up next to a walking path? Many bougies grow big thorns as they get bigger and it's not the best plant to have right next to a path (at my old house, I inherited a beatiful mature purplish one that was planted in a 1' wide bed next to a path, I swear I was out there pruning it every couple of days so that I wouldn't get snagged by thorns on my way past it!

The path is next to the front door, but it's wider at the point where the bougie is and it's set way at the back. I'll take a photo now that it's planted so that you can see. I have a gardener for maintenance that comes every two weeks - I'll ask him to keep an eye on those thorns since that wouldn't be so welcoming. I 'think' this bougie is one of the miniature varieties, but I couldn't find it on the internet to confirm. Here's the photo, it's a little small for now but hopefully it will fill out soon. :)

Yeah, I hate to be the pessimist here, but that's not nearly enough room. That they can be called and considered a vine is absurd at best, it leaves unsuspecting buyers thinking they have a vine, and it isn't, they are monsters, even the ones called dwarf.

We had 4 "dwarf" varieties planted in the space between my neighbor's house and ours- it's at least a 6' space on our side and they were planted 2' from the property edge. I couldn't keep them trimmed back from our side or the neighbor's side, some of the branches were at least 2" thick making it hard to trim as well. We finally removed them last year and what a chore that was, they have a seriously stong and large root system. And the thorns, wow, I never thought thorns could be so large.

I know I will never be planting another bougie, they simply take up too much space and are too much trouble

I have better luck w/ bougies in pots. 1) they drain well 2) in our hot summers they need some water every day or the blooms fall off after they kind of wilt. I have a potted one by my narrow 2-1/2' front walk and it sits in the sun constantly on top of paving stones. It seems to love where it is and is never without a lot of blooms. 3)you can move it if it's in a pot but if you want a truly glorious plant you have to plant it in the ground away from everything else including where people and animals might brush up against it.

Ann

well it's a little late since I have already planted it, so I'll just deal with issues as they arise. If it's trimmed every two weeks, I can't imagine it getting too out of control. Plant lady, good to hear you have a similar environment so at least that's a positive. Thank you

And I was successful growing it near a walkway too, you just have to be really vigilant with the pruning!

Thank you for the vote of confidence. Truly, pruning is the least of my worries since that's why I pay a gardener for maint. I'm more concerned with putting it in an environment that it will do well in. As I mentioned in the original post, the strong sun and reflected heat have been a challenge on any plant up against this wall. For some reason it's even way hotter than the stucco.

Hopefully this will be the last time I'll have to replace it!

thanks to everyone for posting...I did not realize that the bougie need to remain dry to flower. Since I had placed the pot into the ground, I was faithful to water it...and got two flowers about six weeks ago. Also, I decided to bring it inside when temps were to dip into the high 30s overnight last week--it took me half an hour of careful digging and I still broke off eight inches of the taproot. The next day 1/2 the foliage was dying. Any suggestions for growing in pots but keeping roots from invading ground underneath?
another bougie sufferer,
deb

A bougie is a monster - roots on the bottom that go everywhichway and thorns on top that will git you. The bougie will win unless you take dramatic steps. On the bottom of your pot, put a cap of some sort - pot saucer, coffee can top - anything to keep the roots from getting away from you. The bougie is NOT a vine - it's a leaner- and it will lean of anything - usually on you sticking those thorns in you, your clothes, hair, If you continue to prune you will just enable it to bush and prune too much, you prune off the bracts and flowers. I don't think you will win. Put it someplace where you can enjoy it and leave it alone. It adores being neglected.......

Ann

They also don't like having their roots disturbed--I hope that yours is able to recover but you always need to be extra careful of the roots when moving them.

I can vouch for that. It's been a month now and it's still a little shrivelly. The flowers (brachts) are all in bloom, but the leaves aren't as plump and green as I'd like. We're getting weird weather though, so maybe it's not sure about it's surroundings. It's been hot and summer-like in the day and then getting chilly at night. I've turned the watering way down to this bed, thanks to everyone's advice. It sure is pretty up against my green wall!

Mine usually tend to look a little sickly as it gets closer to winter because they don't like the cold too much (although you're probably a bit warmer than I am!). In fact, at my old house, most of my bougies would usually go deciduous over the winter except for one old huge one that was very well established (it was the one that kept growing over the walk and I had to prune it every other day!). It would lose some of its leaves but not all. All of them would come back nicely the following year though.

Good to know for my bougie, thanks. I won't panic if it starts dropping it's leaves. I had a wisteria that did this last year, and I almost ripped it out and threw it away. Good thing I didn't, because it's now about 20' long and going strong! It has a big job to do; I have a huge pattio cover that it needs to fill someday.

I bet we have have very similar weather, don't you think? Isn't Dublin by Danville?

Yeah, I'm just a couple miles south of Danville. Our weather is probably similar except if you're really in 10b then you don't get as much frost in the winter as I do so there are probably some things you can grow without winter protection that I couldn't. And I'm not sure where in San Diego you are, but if you're near the ocean your summers are milder than mine too.

Here in AZ they are evergreen and will bloom all winter, the problem comes when you prune late and you have fresh young growth when a frost hits, that new growth will be toast in a frost, all the other grwoth is fine, so just don't prune late in the year.

is is not enough to keep bougie potted and then sink the pot inground? that's what I've done. The skimpier I'm w/ watering, the more blooms I get.

I see no reason not to do that, in fact it would certainly work in favor of keeping the plant small (what a plus! LOL), the problem is getting the water right, sounds like you're doing great!

I'm already seeing some leaf drop, but now that you've told me why that's happening I won't worry. We do get some frost, but it's pretty minor. I'm inland about 10 miles or so (unfortunately!).

bougies are the bain of my existance nowadays. They were trimmed before summer got hot back to about my waist (I'm 5'4") and already they are over the roofline (single story). The more I trim them the more they grow and they're determined to outlive me despite my best efforts to the contrary.

I love bougies, but haven't had any outside. I grew two in 44 gallon pots on wheels inside in Western CO. They bloomed from late summer until spring. I'd love to have the same again, but since they were originally pathetic rescues from a friend (scale, sad shape), I never got a tag.

Every spring I removed soil from the edge of the pots and replaced it with some worm castings. They thrived.

Christina -

Just saw this thread. How are your boug's doing? I have a similar location that I'm looking to plant. Shade until the sun hits then very hot!

T-

Hello,

They have done ok so far (knock on wood). About six weeks ago they dropped all the leaves, but they've already filled in again and the tips are starting to bloom. It's too soon to tell about the location, as it's the summer that bakes that spot but so far so good! Let me know how yours does and we can compare notes. What area of San Diego are you? (I'm in Scripps Ranch)

Good Luck, Christina