[katie-p-]

Hi there I just planted a bougainvellia in front of my fence. I have a couple of ?'s I hope someone can answer. First off when I planted it I took it out of the container then loosened the roots all around the bottom. Later I looked in my garden book to see that they have very sensitive roots. Do you think it will still live? I was not gentle at all.

My 2nd ? is I live in no. california zone 9 I planted it next to a birch tree in the front of my house that faces north. So it will get shade but still a lot of light, the direct sun in the later afternnoon evening. Will that be enough for it to grow and bloom well?

3rd ? I have is what do I need to give it for support to grow? It's in front of my wood fence and eventually the corner or my house.

Thank you so much for the help, I love bougainvellia and really want to grow it here.
Take care, Katie

 

[MiaPia]

I love bougainvellia too! I had several in my yard when we lived in Phoenix!
I'll do my best to answer your questions!
1 - yes, the roots are VERY VERY sensitive. To be honest if you were very rough with it the poor plant may go into shock and have a hard time recovering. The first one I ever planted I was rough with it, and it never really took off - it seemed the growth was always stunted. But who knows - yours might just do fine!

2 - How many hours of day does it get direct sun? I would say they probably need 6+ hours to thrive and produce the gorgeous leaf brackets. I think if they don't get enough sun the leaf brackets won't turn the pretty colors.

3 - You can probably provide any sort of support - a pretty trellis would be nice. But, if it's near your fence it will eventually just crawl up your fence.

Good luck! What color did you get?

 

[Mama Lori]

Re: question #3 I would use a trellis or stakes or something to support it. For us, our fence was not enough. It's planted up against a nice tall fence, but it had no interest in the fence. It just sprawled out everywhere it could and choked our lavendar plant to death.

 

[armonia]

Bouganvillas like geranium food w/ a teaspoon of epsom salt.

I had some that grew huge in part shade, but didn't bloom as much as the ones that had a lot of sun.

Mine would sprawl out everywhere and not really grow on a trellis, but I used some string to kind of gather it up and then attached the string to the trellis.

I also grew a few plants form cuttings that did great!

 

[katie-p-]

Thanks for the replies, I think I've done everything wrong

. So first if it evens grows because of the roots I freaked out it seems to get maybe an hour of direct sunlight in the shade. Bummer. I thought that spot got a lot more sun. So now I'm undecided if I should try and move it to a sunnier spot or leave it. I'm afraid if I move it I might put the roots into more shock. Would it be too much to plant it against my house? I wanted to grow it up the fence so it would spill over the other side but that spot seems to be too shady. Do you think a trellis against my house would hold it?
Thanks for the information everyone. I'll probably go get another one or try and grow one from a cutting.

MiaPia I got red, I forgot the name but its beautiful!

 

[humicharvest32]

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