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My wife and I recently purchased a home and along one of the sides of the home is a HUGE bougainvillea. It does not look like it has been touched in years. I'm not sure of the measurements, but it appears to be 20 feet in height and 20 feet in width.
I want to trim this thing down, but if I go and gut it will I kill it? I love how beautiful it is and would hate to do that. Right now it looks like a gigantic bush as well and I'm not sure how these are supposed to be shaped.
Whack it back. As long as you don't mess with the roots, it'll be fine. And now would be a pretty good time to do it.
Whether it should be a big vine or a multi-stemmed shrub depends on which bougainvillea it is.
The safe bet is to just assume it already is what it wants to be.
That's good to know. Thanks! I've taken a look under all of the green leaves and I see a lot of brown branches with thorns. Not sure if they are all dead or if there are no leaves because of the lack of sun. So, I can chop down as much as I want as long as I do it above ground?
I would guess that it is a multi-stemmed shrub since it is a giant bush. What should I be looking for to indicate one or the other?
My wife and I recently purchased a home and along one of the sides of the home is a HUGE bougainvillea. It does not look like it has been touched in years. I'm not sure of the measurements, but it appears to be 20 feet in height and 20 feet in width.
I want to trim this thing down, but if I go and gut it will I kill it? I love how beautiful it is and would hate to do that. Right now it looks like a gigantic bush as well and I'm not sure how these are supposed to be shaped.
What hardiness zone are you? It must be CA for it to get that big. I always dream to have such big bougainvillea.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Yes, you can actually cut it to the ground and it will come back. I have one that I bought in CA and brought up here to WA for bonsai. It was about 3' tall in a one gallon pot, now in a shallow bonsai pot and 6" tall, thriving 5 years later. Of course, I have to bring it inside during winter. A famous bonsai master brought a 6" diameter 18" long freshly cut log (like firewood) back from Hawaii years ago, rooted it and it's now filling much of his heated greenhouse.
Yes, you can actually cut it to the ground and it will come back. I have one that I bought in CA and brought up here to WA for bonsai. It was about 3' tall in a one gallon pot, now in a shallow bonsai pot and 6" tall, thriving 5 years later. Of course, I have to bring it inside during winter. A famous bonsai master brought a 6" diameter 18" long freshly cut log (like firewood) back from Hawaii years ago, rooted it and it's now filling much of his heated greenhouse.
Cut it down to about 18 inches and trim/shape it to grow the way you want it to go as it grows out. It's difficult to kill a bogy by trimming.
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