If you want to bring the splendor of the colors of a bougainvillea into your gardening universe, you have to invest a little. The beauty of the Andes definitely needs some care. We will show you how you can successfully cultivate with the right care measures.
How do I properly care for a bougainvillea?
Proper care for a bougainvillea includes sufficient warmth and light, a permeable substrate, regular repotting, fertilizing and watering as well as targeted pruning. Also pay attention to pest control by using appropriate products.
The basic requirements of bougainvillea
If you are thinking about keeping a bougainvillea, you should be clear about its origins. As with other plants, this also results in their needs and also tricks on how best to treat them. Bougainvillea comes from a small Andean region between Ecuador and Brazil, where a subtropical climate prevails. This makes her a sun worshipper, needs a lot of warmth and reacts strongly to the change in humidity and dryness.
The key data of the needs of bougainvilleas are:
- great hunger for light
- high heat requirement
- sensitive reaction to moisture and dryness
Requirements for successful cultivation
Enough warmth
This results in the following necessities: We cannot plant bougainvillea outdoors - our winter months are far too cold for it. In the pot you can still let them grow wonderfully over a heat-retaining wall or wooden trellis over the summer. In winter it must be stored in winter quarters in good time. Here it can spend its resting phase at around 5 to 15°C.
Lots of light
Brightness is another must – pure sunshine is best for them. It's best to place your bougainvillea in a large, south-facing window that, if possible, ensures unrestricted sunlight throughout the day. Of course, a winter garden is even better. If the bougainvillea moves outside in summer, a sunny terrace spot or a south-facing balcony is ideal for it.
The right substrate
Bougainvilleas are sensitive to waterlogging. Therefore, place them in a permeable substrate made of mineral-rich potting soil, which you loosen with lava granules and quartz sand, for example. To provide it with a permanent, slowly depleting source of nutrients, you can add a handful of horn shavings (€52.00 on Amazon) to the substrate.
Repot regularly
In order to achieve good growth and beautiful flowering, you should adjust the container of your bougainvillea at regular intervals. The following applies: In order to cultivate the plant to a nice size, it needs more space for the development of its root ball. However, if you want it to ignite its popular flower fireworks, a narrow base is advantageous, as the plant then concentrates less on its growth.
If you want to grow your bougainvillea initially, give it more space and repot it early rather than late. If it has developed vigorously and has the potential for a magnificent display of flowers, you can be more stingy with the pot size. Be careful when repotting. The root ball of the bougainvillea is not particularly robust and should be treated as gently as possible. Rough pulling and tugging is taboo - then it's better to sacrifice the pot.
Fertilize
After overwintering, the bougainvillea enters its main vegetation phase during the light half of the year. Meanwhile, you should fertilize them regularly. At the beginning of the vegetation phase, you can strengthen the bougainvillea with a universal liquid fertilizer every one to two weeks. When it is ready to flower, a special fertilizer for flowering container plants with potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen is recommended.
Watering wisely
According to its subtropical homeland with dry and rainy seasons, the bougainvillea reacts strongly to the supply of water or the lack of it. Basically, it is important not to let them dry out. You should also avoid waterlogging.
Start watering gently after wintering
After being brought out of the winter quarters, the bougainvillea usually needs some time to sprout. Here you should not try to stimulate them by excessive watering. When it is ready, the plant itself will show you that it has got its metabolism going by keeping its base dry.
Stimulate flowering through dry phase
A little tip about watering practice: When the bougainvillea has entered the full vegetation phase, you can stimulate a burst of flowers through a short dry phase and subsequent watering. They take advantage of the subtropical background of the plant and its adaptation to rainy and dry seasons.
Cut
The bougainvillea grows quite quickly - regular cutting is therefore absolutely necessary. Two cuts per year are recommended - one cut before moving into the winter home and a fine cut in spring. The main purpose of pruning in winter is to save space in the winter quarters - here you simply remove the long shoots.
When moving out in spring, be more careful and take out all the dead, i.e. very dry, branches. Depending on the growth (trunk, bush, trellis), you can also gently shape it.
Pest Control
Basically, bougainvillea is fairly resistant to pest infestation. Scale insects or mites can sometimes appear - if this happens during the vegetation phase, you should not use any spray as the flowers tolerate it poorly. A better solution is to add it to the watering water.
