Boogie on bougainvillea

Backwardsvg

Shohin
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This is my first bougies and I do love them! I have the prince purple and san diego orange or something like that. Either way I am absolutely shocked at the growth of these suckers. I bought them in January from etsy and they came in at about an inch tall with like 3 leaves and now they are massive. one has to be like 2 feet wide and a foot tall now. I finally am getting some bracts on one which is very exciting.

When is the best time to wire these puppies up?
* sorry for the awful picture
 

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LuZiKui

Shohin
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I've got a couple Bougies myself and they are nice because they give you a ton of growth and you can do a lot in a short amount of time (relative to other species).

I think the key with the wiring on these is getting it on super early. They are very brittle and don't take well to the kinds of bends that you can get in a juniper or pine for instance. So when new growth emerges you have to act pretty quick to get it headed in the right direction before it gets too thick. On all of my plants the new growth tends to come out of the trunk or main branch at sort of a 45 degree angle so you have to act quick if you want it to be closer to perpendicular.

FWIW I've found with the Bougs I have planted in the ground (landscape only, not bonsai) that if you really want them to thicken you have to let the whole thing kind of go crazy. So I might suggest letting them basically run wild until you get the trunk you're looking for then cutting back hard and starting to work on branch placement. You might already know this but you can cut these things back to a stump that is flush with the ground and they'll still throw out 10 new shoots all over.

I believe @Carol 83 has some bougies out in your zone, she may have some additional feedback for you!
 

Backwardsvg

Shohin
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@LuZiKui thank you! I cannot plant in the ground but I do plan on letting them grow a bit wild to thicken up. I was thinking of wiring but If they really backbud that well I think I’ll just not worry about it much and then cut back hard when I am ready and then wire when there is more of a vision. Thank you
 

Carol 83

Flower Girl
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I have quite a few, because... flowers. They do grow like mad outside in the summer. You can cut them back severely and they will backbud like crazy. You will do best with grow lights for the winter in Chicago. You'll see some winter blooms. :)
 

Backwardsvg

Shohin
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I have quite a few, because... flowers. They do grow like mad outside in the summer. You can cut them back severely and they will backbud like crazy. You will do best with grow lights for the winter in Chicago. You'll see some winter blooms. :)

I am excited for the winter blooms. Do you not fertilize at all during the winter? I’d assume no but not sure with these. I think I am going to let them run for a year or two maybe and thicken a bit then go from there. Also letting them run hopefully just means more flowers :)
 

Carol 83

Flower Girl
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I am excited for the winter blooms. Do you not fertilize at all during the winter? I’d assume no but not sure with these. I think I am going to let them run for a year or two maybe and thicken a bit then go from there. Also letting them run hopefully just means more flowers :)
I fertilize once a month in the winter. They do flower off of new growth, but if you let them go for a year or two they will get pretty wild looking. Depends on what you want. I cut all of mine back pretty hard last week because I don't want them too big when I have to bring them in this fall. And even with lights, they tend to get leggy. Cuttings are pretty easy to strike if you want to start some.
 
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