Bougainvillea

Photo of bougainvillea bonsai

Bougainvillea (Bougainvillea) - flowering evergreen plant from the family Niktaginovye (Noctifolia). Low shrubs and vines with prickly shoots in the natural environment are common in tropical areas of South Africa, Mexico, and the homeland of bougainvillea is Brazil. In many countries, grown as a houseplant. At home, bougainvillea can live up to 10 years if wintering is properly organized. After this, the plant lignifies and stops growing.

The flower grows at an average rate. It can grow up to 3 m, if you do not regulate its development and do not cut it in time. It blooms from mid-spring to early autumn with miniature creamy flowers surrounded by bright original bracts. The plant is named in memory of the explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville, who led the first French round-the-world expedition and delivered a beautiful flower to Europe.

	Average growth rate.
	It blooms in autumn, summer and spring.
	The plant is grown with little difficulty.
	Perennial. 8-10 years, if you observe a cool wintering.

Useful properties of bougainvillea

Flower cells secrete volatile production - biologically active substances that cleanse the airspace from harmful microorganisms. In rooms where the plant blooms, people have increased efficiency, reduced anxiety, improved sleep. The flower attracts positive energy and generously shares it with others.

It is believed that bougainvillea helps to attract good luck and material well-being to all signs of the zodiac, only Sagittarius does not enjoy the favor of the plant. Blooming bougainvillea creates a pleasant atmosphere in the house.

Features of home care. Briefly

The environment in which bougainvillea grows at home is different from the one to which it is used in nature. But you need to create a comfortable environment for the plant at home. The optimal conditions are:

Temperature	In winter - from + 10 ° C, in summer - to + 25 ° C.
Air humidity	Increased; placed on a pallet with wet pebbles, sprayed between blooms.
Lighting	Bright, does not need shading.
Watering	In the summer - 2 times in 14 days, plentifully; in winter - 1 time in 14 days.
Priming	Ready-made universal soil mix for flowers; a mixture of 2 parts of turf and leaf land, 1 part of humus and 1 part of sand.
Fertilizer and fertilizer	From spring to autumn - 1 time in 14 days - liquid concentrated fertilizer for indoor flowers, diluted in half.
Transfer	Young bushes - annually; mature - after 2, 5 years.
Breeding	In the spring - seeds and green cuttings; in the fall - semi-lignified cuttings; at any time - by air layering.

The plant does not require special knowledge from the field of biology from the grower, but it is necessary to take into account the peculiarities of growing bougainvillea, then it can please its flowering several times a year. The plant is conservative. Accustomed to one place, it is difficult to get used to another. Therefore, you must immediately fix a certain place for a flower and not try to rearrange it.

Several times a year, the plant is pruned - to stimulate flowering (in summer), to remove weak shoots and wilted inflorescences (in spring), to form a beautiful crown (autumn). Shortening the branches, leave them up to 10 cm of the shoot of a given year. Pruning allows you to "play" with the shape of the plant. Using this procedure, bougainvillea is transformed from a single-stemmed tree into a multi-stemmed shrub and vice versa.

Often, a prickly vine is grown on a support, the shape of which can be any. Eccentric and elegant look different in color varieties grown in one container.

Caring for bougainvillea at home. In detail

Homemade bougainvillea is considered not a very whimsical plant. But care for the flower must be approached responsibly, the reward will be magnificent long flowering.

Bloom

With good care at home in late April, flowering begins. This natural phenomenon knows no equal in originality and brightness. Therefore, bougainvillea is very popular among lovers of indoor flowers. Miniature cream flowers, collected in racemose inflorescences, grow surrounded by bright bracts. Their texture is similar to crepe paper, from which needlewomen make flowers.

In such a bright lilac, raspberry, pink or salmon paper wrapper, the flowers look like elegant bouquets decorated by a skilled florist. Bougainvillea is often called a paper plant, hinting at the similarity of the texture of bracts with paper.

Terry plant species in which bracts are arranged in several rows look festive in a special way. Bracts with their size, triangular, arrow-shaped or heart-shaped and brightness overlap no less attractive oval leaves with a pointed end.

Flowers quickly fade, and bracts retain a spectacular appearance for a long time. In order for the plant to bloom again, it is necessary to cut the shoots when the bracts begin to dry on them. In total, bougainvillea at home blooms for about six months.

Temperature mode

In order to fully develop bougainvillea, home care requires that you observe the temperature regime. The plant is thermophilic. In winter, the room must be maintained at a temperature of + 10 ° C. If it is warmer, flower buds may not form. At temperatures below + 6 ° C, the plant will die. In summer, the plant is comfortable at + 20 - 25 ° C.

Spraying

Bougainvillea prefers high humidity. Spraying is an important part of caring for a tropical plant. In order not to spoil the decorativeness of the bracts, it is sprayed in between blooms. During flowering, humidifiers are used, the plant is placed on a pallet with wet pebbles, an open vessel with water is placed next to it.

Lighting

As in the natural environment, a bougainvillea flower in room conditions loves bright lighting. Even on hot days, the plant does not need shading. In poor lighting will not bloom.

Bougainvillea should be at maximum brightness up to 6 hours a day.

Watering

Bougainvillea likes to be watered abundantly. Good care prevents stagnation of water. The soil must be kept moist. Watering in the summer is required 2 times in 10 days. In autumn, when the plant is preparing for rest and begins to shed its leaves, reduce the number of watering to 1 time at the same time.

In winter, watered 1 time in 14 days. For irrigation use filtered water at room temperature. In order to keep the soil moist for a long time, it is mulched.

Priming

For planting, you can buy a ready-made universal substrate for flowers. You can prepare the soil mixture yourself from turf land, leaf land, perlite, humus (2: 2: 1: 1). Soil for bougainvillea needs slightly acidic. To improve the composition of the substrate, you can add vermiculite, ash, coal powder.

Additives will make the soil more loose and air- and water-permeable. The plant loves phosphate fertilizers. Bone meal is added to the soil mixture as a slow-acting phosphate.

Fertilizer and fertilizer

Fertilizing and fertilizing helps maintain the decorativeness of the plant at a high level. From mid-March to mid-September, once every 14 days, water with a solution of concentrated fertilizer for home flowers, diluted in half. Only root dressing is carried out.

In winter, feeding is stopped.

Transfer

Young bushes are transplanted annually in the spring. A mature plant needs a transplant when nutrients in the soil are depleted or when the bougainvillea outgrows the pot, its roots begin to peek out from the drainage holes. This usually happens every 2, 5 years. The plant is hard to tolerate the transplant and expresses its displeasure, dropping foliage, refusing to bloom. After transplanting, provide bougainvillea with special care. It is advisable to transship the flower, this method of transplantation causes less stress in the plant.

For transplantation, a deep pot is selected, the diameter of which is slightly larger than the previous one. It is not necessary to take too much capacity: the green mass will grow in it, and flowering can not wait. Take out of the old pot. Carefully inspect and slightly shorten the roots. Transplanted bougainvillea for several days should be in a slightly shaded place without watering. Feed the plant begin after 2, 5 weeks after transplantation.

Propagation of bougainvillea

Propagation of bougainvillea is possible in three ways: by cuttings, aerial layering, and seeds.

Propagation by cuttings

Propagation by cuttings green (spring) or semi-lignified (autumn). Cuttings should be at least 9 cm and have at least 3 kidneys. First, they are placed in a solution of a root growth stimulator, then they are rooted in a substrate at + 23 ° C and high humidity (covered with a film, providing lower heating). The film is removed to ventilate and water the seedlings. When the cuttings take root, they are planted in a small pot.

Propagation by air layering

Spend at any time of the year. Next to the flowerpot in which bougainvillea grows, put a container filled with a substrate. A young thin shoot is tipped over the substrate and fixed with a wooden stud. In the place where the shoot touches the ground, the plant is slightly jagged to provoke root formation. After this, the shoot is sprinkled with earth, watered a little and mulched. When the roots are formed, the seedling is cut from the mother plant and planted in a separate pot.

Growing bougainvillea from seeds

Propagation by seeds in a temperate climate is rare. In vivo, hummingbird is pollinated by bougainvillea. In the middle zone of tropical birds, a hawthorn butterfly tries to replace, but with its help, the ovaries are rarely formed.

When using air layers and stem cuttings, species and varietal characteristics of the plant are preserved, the reproduction of bougainvillea is easy, therefore these methods are the most common.

Diseases and Pests

Sometimes diseases arise from improper care of a flower, and pests harm it. Most often, plant lovers have questions:

1. Why do the leaves fall off bougainvillea? This may be due to physiological reasons: the leaves age and fall, or the plant is preparing for winter. Summer leaf fall may appear from a rearrangement of a flower from place to place or under the influence of a draft.
2. Why do the leaves turn yellow (dry)? Most often, flower growers encounter a problem in winter if they moisten the soil.
3. Why bougainvillea doesn't bloom? The problem can be caused by several reasons. Bougainvillea is located in a shadowed place and receives little light. In winter, the temperature was not lowered, and flower buds could not form. Overfeeding with nitrogen also causes a lack of flowering.

Pests include: whitefly, spider mite, scutellaria, aphid, mealybug. Insecticides are used against insects.

Types and varieties of bougainvillea home with photos and names

In nature, there are about 15 species of plants, but only 3 of them are grown at home. All of these species come from Brazil: Bougainvillea Naked, Peruvian and Fair. At home, compact low-growing species are popular, which are hybrid varieties created by breeders based on these species. They can be monochrome and two-tone, variegated, changing colors, simple and terry.

Bougainville Double Pink / Bougainvillea Double Pink

Terry bracts are painted in pale pink with a greenish tint at the base. It has a bright color throughout the flowering period.

Bougainvillea Gold / Bougainvillea Thai Gold

A variety that changes the color of bracts during the growing season. At first they are painted in golden color with a bright orange tint. As they wither, they turn bright pink with a slight blush.

Bougainvillea Alexandra / Bougainvillea Alexandra

A very heat-loving variety with saturated lilac bracts and small snow-white flowers, collected 2 to 3 pieces in a racemose. It does not tolerate even a short-term decrease in temperature. Designed for bonsai. Using pruning plants create original compact compositions.

Bougainvillea is an unusual plant that combines tropical brightness and pronounced French sophistication (the name obliges!). It forever wins the hearts of lovers of flora and becomes the "highlight" of any interior.

Watch the video: Bougainvilleas 101 (May 2024).