If you live in the right climate, few climbing plants are easier to grow than bougainvillea (Bougainvillea spp. These evergreen climbing plants come from South America, where the climate is warm, so it's no surprise that bougainvillea does well in the U.S. UU. Department of Agriculture Plant Hardiness Zone 10 and above.
But this colorful climbing shrub has a lot of surprising (and even surprising) features. Bougainvillea could win prize for misspelled plant name more often. While there are several species of bougainvillea, some deciduous, others evergreen, only three are widely used in cultivation. Bougainvillea are woody flowering shrubs that grow to 20 or 30 feet or more.
While they can stand on their own like upright shrubs, they will climb any available support, including trees, structures, and fences. The flowers are tiny, tubular, and white, but are protected by paper-like modified leaves called _bract_s that appear in a variety of spectacular colors, including scarlet, violet, royal purple, and buttercup yellow. Bougainvillea bushes are usually multi-stemmed climbers, sending slender, arched canes armed with thorns. Gardeners know that tracking the history of a cultivated plant can help you determine its ideal growing conditions, because, in nature, plants grow where they can thrive, rather than in a location chosen by a gardener.
In nature, they opt for soil and climate that make it easier for them to develop and spread. However, homeowners often select a plant for a particular location based on ornamental factors. Bougainvillea is native to tropical and subtropical areas of Brazil, Peru, Argentina and other countries in South America. In nature, this creeper shrub prefers acidic soils and a very bright, sunny place.
Blooms with a minimum of water and high temperatures. What does it take to keep a bougainvillea happy in cultivation? These climbing shrubs require full sun and high light intensity to thrive and produce flowers. Don't consider installing bougainvillea in a shaded corner of the backyard or even in a dimly lit area. Temperature also counts in bougainvillea growing conditions.
Don't worry too much about the heat, as this shrub thrives in warm, dry locations even at temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The ideal temperature for this plant is 65 degrees Fahrenheit at night and 75 degrees during the day. Some species can tolerate lower temperatures. Bougainvillea is a hardy plant, and that's not just in reference to its formidable thorns.
It is also a surviving plant, known to tolerate drought, salt and winds. Of the many species of bougainvillea in nature, only three have been widely cultivated. Each of the three species has slightly different characteristics and degrees of resistance. The first bougainvillea identified (in 179) received the botanical name Bougainvillea spectabilis.
A large, dense shrub with hairy leaves and stems, it also stands out for its distinctive curved spines. Tiny flowers appear above and below branches most of the year. They are slender ivory tubes with multiple showy bracts. The bracts are large, wrinkled ovals in bright shades of pink and purple.
The leathery leaves of the shrub are also large, oval and hairy. The glabrous bougainvillea also blooms almost continuously up and down along the branches, but the flowers are slightly different. The white flowers are larger than those of the species spectabilis, and the bracts are pointed and shaped like triangles. They can be both white and lilac and purple.
The third species of bougainvillea cultivated is Bougainvillea peruviana, which stands out for its green bark and true yellow flowers. The leaves of this species are thin and the bracts are magenta in color, rather small and delicate. The branching habit of the bush is looser and more open. With its almost year-round color of its beautiful bracts, gardeners prefer bougainvillea as one of the best climbing or climbing plants in a landscape.
It is very popular in hot and dry climates, where it can be used in a wide variety of ways. The versatility of this plant may surprise you. Perhaps the most popular use of bougainvillea is as a climbing plant. Planted near a wall or trellis, bougainvillea can quickly cover the surface in a burst of bright bracts.
But those same qualities make it useful as a ground cover in hard-to-maintain parts of a property. It can cover entire slopes and is tough enough to suffocate weeds. Bougainvillea also trains well and agrees to prune cheerfully. It can be shaped like hedges, upright shrubs or, as standard, a single-trunk flowering tree.
It's also beautiful to grow on gazebos, trellises or hanging baskets. It also cascades down the sides of the containers. Since bougainvillea is a tropical or semi-tropical plant, it won't really thrive in colder regions and may not even survive a winter. However, if your heart is set on bougainvillea, you can grow it in many areas annually, planting it in spring for a single season.
Alternatively, you can grow bougainvillea as a sample container plant and move it indoors when temperatures drop. Some gardeners install bougainvillea in greenhouses. If you plan to grow bougainvillea in pots, use well-draining potting soil. Stay away from a medium with a high peat content, as it retains water and can rot the plant.
Some suggest that the best crop mix is a landless mix, as they are free of weed seeds, diseases, pathogens, and insect eggs. It is usually porous, allowing water to drain quickly. What determines if bougainvillea can survive is how many consecutive nights & if the ground freezes. With mine, most of the outer branches & of foliage were hit, but the roots didn't hit because the ground didn't freeze.
Water bougainvillea sparingly as long as the top 2 or 3 inches of soil is dry so that the soil is moistened but not soaked. If bougainvillea is in a pot or pot, make sure there are drainage holes at the bottom so that water does not accumulate, as bougainvillea roots are fragile and standing water can cause rot. You can grow it in a pot, outdoors, but if you have a greenhouse where it can have a longer period of heat, it would provide you with more growth. While your bougainvillea will drop some leaves throughout the year, it is classified as a perennial in mild climates and maintains its leaves throughout the year.
Bougainvillea is a hardy perennial vine, but prefers the temperate climates of USDA plant hardiness zones 9 to 11. My neighbor's bougainvillea (shown in the freeze damage photo above) and some hibiscus shrubs are on a large planting bed that sits in an open area of her backyard. However, it is possible that as the vines grow and grow (almost as large around my wrist) they can damage the tree in a suffocating way. Bougainvillea is semi-inactive here in the colder winter months, so I think it's best to leave them alone. In Atlanta, you'll need to grow bougainvillea in a large pot that can be taken indoors for the winter.
Bougainvillea is native to Central America, most of South America, the Caribbean Islands, Spain, parts of the United States, and many other warm climates. Here's an update on how my bougainvillea (actually bougainvillea, but the one I focus on was the one that hit the most) is working 9 months after a freeze. . .
