The more you prune....or actually just pull off leaves...pulling works for me...just snap the leaves off....the more color bracts you’ll get. And the color areas will increase in density...and give you more opportunity for the next pruning and pulling. Bougainvilleas are strong survivors. Don’t prune or pull off...and you’ll get long branches with a color cloud just at the end eventually.
Sort of...maybe...maybe not....helpful views of pruning and pulling results photos.
The bracts bloom to color after pulling off leaves. Shortly after....the colors drop off and leaves grow....then start all over again....pull off leaves and get colors.
It can take a week....maybe two weeks...and the colors pop out. I guess I’ve never actually observed the bloom. Seems one day the branches are pulled clean and then I see color bursts. And....then clean up all the color bursts that fall off.
Nice tree stand...a box of chocolates? Ha ha