The Bougainvillea is a very resilient species to work with. This is one of my indoor plants. I got this one from a cutting back in 1983, and has survived may abuses along the way. The one thing that is consistent with this tree is that it mostly dies off in winter, or goes into a slow / no grow mode. Over the past week or so it has shown some signs of life again and is budding out. It needs a little bit of shaping and a transplant, but I may leave it for another year.
The cool thing is that spring is on the way, one of my oldest trees its telling me the days are getting longer!!
In the past it has looked like this. The flowers last for a long time and when I get it outside the color of the flowers is absolutely fantastic.
Once this plant is fully grown for the year, and I hope to get many flowers, I will post up how it looks.
Things I like about Bougainvillea:
- It is tough and can stand major trimming.
- Dryness resistant, incase of forgetful watering.
- Flowers for a long time, and also looks very good while flowering.
- Leaves can be made to be small, with heavy trimming.
- The bark gets very rough and old looking after some years.
Things I do not like about Bougainvillea:
- Brittle roots. They are hard to repot without doing a lot of damage. One has to be extra careful while repotting to avoid breaking too many roots.
- That in winter, sometimes it becomes nothing but a leafless tree.