Unlocking the Secrets to Bougainvillea Care. How to keep your Bougainvillea stunning in your garden

Well hey you guys, happy Saturday. So today's video is going to be quick and succinct. It's going to be based pretty much on how to care for your bougainvillea trees. So this video was inspired by Debra. Debra, hello if you're watching. Debra hired me to do her new landscaping and she asked me to incorporate some bougainvillea plants within her new design and then she quickly backed right off of that and said, yeah, yeah, no, no. I get sucked in every single time at the stores, the big box stores, the nurseries on bougainvilleas and then I bring them home and then a month later they look like a bucket of sticks. It's where bougainvilleas come to die, my house. And so she's like, I'm not going to do it again. So this, that's happened to a lot of us and I'm sure, I'm sure, and it's even happened to me. So I completely understand. So I want to do a quick video on four quick tips on what you guys can do to keep your bougainvilleas, you know, pretty much just, you know, nursery worthy. I mean, just really busting with blooms because they bloom all year long. I think there's very, very few plants and trees that give you the impact that bougainvilleas offer. So they're definitely worth it. They're definitely worth a little extra care in the garden. You know, I just think there's a little misconception about how to care for them. So tip number one, first things first, they definitely need sun. So they need a minimum of five hours of sun every single day. So you want to make sure that they're planted in the proper location within your garden. Now, my bougainvilleas, let me share mine with you. So this is my girl here and then I've got one there and one right there. Now mine are in pots because my landscaping is very tropical. So my landscaping has, you know, my irrigation comes on three times a week and that's just far too much for bougainvilleas, but I could not resist not having a couple standard trees in my landscape. So I put them in pots and knowing that I kind of follow those guidelines, that I could keep them blooming. Now these guys have been in these pots for a couple years and they're doing super, super well. I kind of keep them at the perfect size for myself, but you know, I just kind of want them tipping out just over top of my Colucia hedge there so I can see them as I'm coming up the road. But they get all morning sun up into about six o'clock in the evening. So they really get a good dose of sun. Now I've got one more bougainvillea in a pot over there by my seeding section and it's orange and pink and it's absolutely sunny, but it does not bloom nearly as much. So I've got, you know, some blooms along the tips, but nowhere like these guys are. So the first things first, don't over water your bougainvillea. Make sure they're in the sun. If you have too much water going on within your landscaping, possibly put them in pots like I have them here because that way you get the benefit of them without oversaturating them. If they are going to be in the garden, make sure that they're in an area where your sprinkler system is not hitting. So maybe put them in one specific cluster within the landscape and then have your irrigation heads kind of go the different direction that you need them to go and kind of, you know, miss or just do a soft cast over top of those irrigate or those plants. So when I do water my bougainvillea, it's about every two weeks, 10 days to two weeks. If it hasn't rained, I'll come out and I'll give them just a deluge of water. So I will take the hose and I will let it run for a few minutes in each pot and let that water just kind of really go through the root system all the way down. I have good, I have a big drainage hole at the bottom and it wasn't quite enough for the amount of rain that we get here in Vero Beach. So I incorporated, incorporated, I, words, what are they? So I put in two drainage holes in the backside of my pots as well. So that way I know that my plants are not going to get root rot. They're going to become really nice, strong, standard trees. So drainage is a big one. So, and the next tip is pretty much, it's a misconception about bougainvilleas to kind of forget about them. That makes the best bougainvillea, not the case. So bougainvilleas really, really, really love to be trimmed. They love a little bit of haircut, a little bit of pruning. So you want to kind of take right on these edges, like you see here, you just kind of want to take those tips off and you kind of want to do what, do that all the way around the bougainvillea tree. Just kind of nip all the outside tips, maybe three or four inches of those tips, all the way around it. And it does two things. It keeps bougainvillea nice and compact and dense and thick and solid and allows the blooms to kind of be all the way, all the way through. I mean, look how compact she is. And you know, she looks like she's wearing some Spanx. I mean, she looks fantastic, doesn't she? So it keeps them nice and thick and dense and blooming all the way around. And then also everywhere that you bloom, everywhere that you cut, you're going to get two stems off of that cutting. Since bougainvillea only bloom on new growth, you're really doubling your money because those two stems are now going to provide you two, two blooms. So for those of you who are like, don't want to trim my bougainvillea while it's blooming, because it's absolutely so stunning. You're going to, you're going to double your money with it because you're going to, you're going to, you're going to come out and they're going to be like, you know, just big and beautiful and gorgeous. And then you're going to, you know, I really like that. Thank you for those dead ends trimmed. I look fabulous. So, um, they're, they're definitely worth. So when you come out, do that about every two months in the summer, just kind of nip just those outside edges and they, they'll, they'll reward you for it. And so at the same time that I do that, my final tip is hit it with some fertilizer. So I, um, because they're in pots and I have a tendency to overfeed like everything, you know, people, dogs, cats, plants, everything. I use an organic fertilizer on my potted, so I don't burn them. So I don't take any chance. So if I happen to get a little bit too aggressive with my fertilizing, you know, it's pretty safe on my, um, on my, uh, trees in the pot. Now I use non-organic on, um, the ones that are in the ground. So, uh, but yeah, so I do that every two months. So my pattern is, um, every couple of months I put it on my, on my phone because I'm so not organized. Um, and, um, it'll just, it'll say time to fertilize your boogies. So I will come out and, um, hit them with some fertilizer and take my clippers and just nip all those outside edges. And it literally takes me three or four minutes. And because you hardly get any thorns on the outside edges of, of growth, it's always the interior grouping that kind of want to really kill you. Um, then it's, you know, it's a safe, easy and easy cleanup. So it's definitely, definitely worth it. Those of you guys who have seen those bougainvilleas that have kind of grown crazy and all over the place and you go in to trim them, they've created thorns that are like, like these, you know, this size. And it's like, Oh my God, you look like you have to go to the ER after trimming. Yeah. You don't want to let your bougainvilleas get that, that wide and that big. So you want all of that impact and all of that growth just to, um, you know, just to, just to do what they do. I mean, they're just fabulous, fabulous plants in the garden. So I just love having them. And for those of you who are like Debra, don't be scared to incorporate bougainvilleas in your landscaping because they, they, they offer such an impact for our warm climate. They give us a lot of color, a lot of, a lot of style in the garden. So, um, and then for those of you who might be new to bougainvilleas, um, just a, a fun fact, these little leaves that are drawing all of that color are actually called bracts. The blooms themselves are these little white flowers. So all these leaves that, that besides being beautiful, they're kind of like neon signs to the pollinators saying, Hey, look at me. Um, and then they draw them in and then the, they see that these are the actual buds in the, inside the bougainvilleas, the blooms that are there. I mean, just isn't mother nature amazing. So the don't sleep on the bougainvilleas, you guys just, uh, you know, just give them a little extra love. So, all right. So I hope this video was helpful. If you guys have any other questions, um, definitely leave them in the comments down below. If you made it to the end of this video, then please comment true gardener because you are a true gardener. Thank you guys for this great gardening community. And I hope this video was helpful. Have a great weekend. See you later.