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I have a nicely growing Bougainvillea, about 2 feet tall and maybe 3 feet wide at this point, growing in what I believe is a 3 gallon pot. I've read all about how they like to be pot bound so I was going to cut a hole in the bottom of the pot and plant it in the ground, on the side of my house near my porch.
My goal is to use a trellis and train it up the trellis along the end of the porch and up to the roof of the house.
My concern is whether or not I can plant it directly (while still in the pot) into our clay soil (I'm in San Antonio, TX), or if I need to amend the soil before planting it. It's currently in whatever planting medium it was in at the nursery and as I said, doing quite well.
I want to get it into the ground but without any negatives. Should I buy some potting soil for the hole I will dig, or just dig a hole the same size as the pot and stick it in the ground?? Does it need better drainage (therefore requiring a different soil in the hole?) If so, how big of a hole do I dig for it?
Also, how do I 'train' it up the trellis? Is it enough to just have it planted nearby or do I need to do something specific to get it to grow along the trellis?
Location: somewhere close to Tampa, but closer to the beach
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..the best way to plant bougainvilleas is to carefully cut off the bottom of
the pot,and up along one side of the container,and slip the plant into the
hole
bougainvilleas are one of those plants which don't form a dense root ball
and have brittle roots...
..as for the soil,..id definately add in a good sandy loam to the planting hole...dig the hole twice as wide as the planting container is wide and deep..mix a portion of the good soil with the native soil at the bottom of the hole..this helps the plant adjust to its new
enviorment better..
..as for training it,..as the canes grow,you can weave them through the
trellis or tie them to it...to get a good frame work,allow the canes to grow
a full year(perhaps a little sooner,depending on how fast it grows) and
take off about 1/4th of the growth..this will help develop strong canes which won't flop over...
..chances are that you will experience some sort of frost damage,especially on younger
plants..(mainly tip burn..unless you experience a prolonged hard freeze) they will recover just fine once the weather warms..plants seem to handle brief frosts better as they age..
..the only thing id advise you to look after is to keep any dead wood thinned out as the
plant grows..bougainvilleas can get top-heavy enough to pull away from a trellis
over time..other then that,..they're great..
ff---si33's information is exactly right on target. Follow those instructions and you should have beautiful healthy blooming Bogey's.
Once they are established, the less often you water them the more they flower.
Not to be too technical, but Bogeys don't 'flower'. The colors at the end of stems are called 'bracts'. After allowing mine to get to 6 feet on a trellis and getting stabbed and scratched too many times trimming it, it went to the county landfill compost heap.
Where it says specifically that they aren't good in the ground in my area (San Antonio)....
Now I'm totally confused. I see them ALL OVER town up against houses and fences. Maybe they are in pots way down but who could tell when they are 10 to 20 feet tall!?
I wonder if I should go ahead and put it in the ground anyway and continue with my plan to train it up a trellis on the sunny side of the porch, or leave it in the pot and try and train it (would that even work?).. or something else entirely.
Gardening books are like child-rearing books. You get lots of conflicting information and in the end you just have to go with what makes the best sense to you and see if it works. If you're seeing them all over SA then I say just plant it and see what happens. If they're in your neighborhood or you see someone out in the yard, you can always stop and ask if they did anything special to the soil or left it in the pot, or whatever.
FWIW, I'm in Corpus Christi and I had a beautiful Bougainvillea that I planted directly in the soil. It grew like crazy, but something ate it up every summer. I never saw a caterpillar, but it would get stripped and look awful and I'd cut it back and the cycle would begin again. I finally gave up.
I love Bogeys.... we have them all over the place, here in Arizona.... and they grow beautifully. I am getting ready to attempt a transplant myself. I'll have to see how it goes. I understand that they have a tendency to be a bit "sulky", so we'll have to see. We had one that we planted over a year ago at our home, and it appeared to have died- no flowers, no nothing... so we gave up on it. This summer, it's a gorgeous flowering monster. I'm not sure why, but I can't complain.
Not to be too technical, but Bogeys don't 'flower'. The colors at the end of stems are called 'bracts'. After allowing mine to get to 6 feet on a trellis and getting stabbed and scratched too many times trimming it, it went to the county landfill compost heap.
To be even more technical, they actually do flower. The flowers are inside the bracts.
Not to be too technical, but Bogeys don't 'flower'. The colors at the end of stems are called 'bracts'. After allowing mine to get to 6 feet on a trellis and getting stabbed and scratched too many times trimming it, it went to the county landfill compost heap.
Well most things do flower, but we call them inconspicuous flowers. This term simply means they are present but not very showy. Another prime plant example would be the Holiday time favourite called Poinsettia as seen in the photo below. Notice that the actual (technical) flower/s itself is in the center surrounded by the colourful leaves.
But while we are on the subject, there are Bougainvilleas that do have a much showier flower than others. As an example, here is a Bougainvillea glabra. Notice that although the purple leaf colour is outstanding, it actually acts as a highlighting background for the not so shaby light yellow creamy looking flower.
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Here are mine
