Need some help with my bougainvillea

by Adva

Eyal hi,
my bougainvillea looks bad. should i prune here? for better recovery?
its been like that for the last 6 years.
thank you
Adva


Hi Adva
thanks for sharing,

from my point of view your bougainvillea looks great, i love it! you wrote me Via e mail that you live in a desert area and dried winds are quite common.
you also mentioned that a year and a half ago you moved your bougainvillea from smaller pot to the one in the picture. and you told me that its winter now (looks like a sunny one) where you leave.

So, here is my answer... you deed every thing right and your bougainvillea is fine as far as I'm concern. but I'm sure just like you that it needs some support to get a better look. don't worry it will get better after the following recommendations.

let me start with no pruning here (at list not in that stage).
1. first step would be try to find a better location to hide the bougainvillea from the dried desert wind as much as you can. if you can't do that or there is no chance for you to change the location because it will heart your design, then leave it like that.

2. as weather will get warm and temperature will become more steady
and new growth will start to come out from the stems, then and only then move the bougainvillea to a much larger container, at list 10% large or even more. make sure the new container has drainage hols at the bottom, add and mix a high quality soil and some compost and your done with your bougainvillea's new home. there is no doubt that it needs more place for the rots to spread and develop. form what is see in the picture, it is certainly not enough.

3. soon after the transplanting (here comes the pruning part) prune gently some of the branches about 1/3 from the edge. don't prune to hard, you just want to encourage new growth. See red markers on the picture. those pruning spots are just general guidelines.

fer words regard transplanting:
make sure you have all the equipment like large container, soil, compost, water hose or a funnel etc... in advance.
soon as you finish transplanting add water and flood the soil. by doing that you will relies air that got caught in the pit.
tie the bougainvillea to a pol and stabilise it. allow the wind to rip the leaves and not braking the shrub.
hope it helps

please share with me the process, id like to see what will happened and how thing are doing.

yours

Eyal