Bougainvillea for the greenhouse

I am growing primarily olive trees in my greenhouse, however I recently read that Bougainvillea plants need pretty much the same conditions as olives: full sun, well drained soil and no wet feet. Today I added two small Bougainvillea plants, one pink and one purple, so hopefully someday I will have flowering Bougainvilleas.

 

Just keep them frost free.
So not as hardy as olive.
I know some are more difficult than others, but mine is growing well outside with winter frost protection.
what would you say is your winter minimum outside?
Probably a bit colder than here.

 

Our winter minimum can hit 10 to 20 below F. I bring the olives indoors and grow them under LED grow lights in the basement during the winter. They stay in the greenhouse until they get about 300 hours of chill time, but nothing below 35 F or so. I plan on bringing the Bougainvillea in when the night temps are getting close to 50 F.

 

Hi Hydro

They should do well. I have 4 in a greenhouse/conservatory. But I learnt a valuable lesson recently in relation to another plant - Urginea. Urginea is a bulb that hasn't yet flowered for me. I spoke to the chap who sold me the bulbs and he said it was because they were too wet. They need to be stressed to flower, so they like to be dry and also like to be under potted.

Of my Bougainvillea, the two small ones are in flower, but I have 2 six foot plants as well and they haven't flowered at all. I am sure it is the same problem of keeping them on the dry side. Having realised this, I haven't watered them for several weeks, and the soil is still very damp (I use a meter). Its amazing how little water they need. Whilst I have other climbers next to them which need loads of water.

 

To my amazement one of the plants has a bud forming already. It has been getting quite a bit of sun and heat since it arrived. When I potted them I used the same media that I use for the olives. The media contains 25% course builder's sand and drains readily and does not stay damp for long. That media has made a world of difference in the health of the olives, and I can see that it seems to be working well with the Bougainvillea..

 

That's great Hydro - I have always added 25% of sharp sand to all my compost. But in the case of the Urginea I re-potted them in about 1/3 compost, 1/3 sharp sand and 1/3 coarse grit.

I would like to re-pot my Bougainvillea, but I have put it in a 35 litre (8+ gallon) pot, its 7 feet tall and has attached itself to wires inside my conservatory - so its not going to be easy. Its probably over-potted as well, as I only wanted to do it once, because of the difficulty. But I suspect the secret is in not letting it get too wet.

Victoria, on this forum, lives in Portugal and has said that her Bougainvillea will flower in the shade, but obviously prefers the sun.

 

The media I am using contains 25% each of compost, course sand, peat and agricultural perlite. I am finding that it works well for pretty much everything I am growing now. I even have an Arbosana olive cutting in it, and the cutting has not lost a single leaf having been in the media for three weeks now. Looking forward to my first Bougainvillea flower though.

 

That sounds good Hydro. And you have the advantage in summer of the heat that will dry things up quicker than we have here.

In my case my Bougainvillea and other plants are in a conservatory/garden room at the bottom of my garden - where the sun is. It spends a lot of time with the doors and windows closed to raise the temperature and to get the humidity up, as I am growing a number of plants from tropical rain forests. The net result is that the humidity can be 80% or more - and of course many plants don't lose much moisture under those circumstances.

My problem, really, is that I am growing high humidity loving plants and dry loving plants such as Bougainvillea all in the same space.

I am saving up to buy a greenhouse similar to the new one at Kew. It has 10 separate climate zones. But it could be a while before I can afford that.

 

Just caught this thread, an interesting read as I have one in the conservatory

 

Peter, the greenhouse on your wish list sounds fantastic. Yeah, we certainly have weather extremes in New York; hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. Right now the temp in the greenhouse is in the high 80s F with both vents and the door open. I like to grab a chair, cool drink, book and mp3 player and sit there in the afternoon and enjoy the heat. The only problem is that I tend to nod off after fifteen minutes or so. LOL. I am also planning on propagating Bougainvillea using tissue culture. I bought some seeds from China for a variety with garnet colored flowers. I started the seeds using tissue culture methods a few weeks ago and the plant is now in the greenhouse growing like mad. Last night I took a node from the pink colored bonsai variety and put that into culture. That is the problem with this hobby: you don't know when to stop and only do when you run completely out of room.

 

Hydro - I am very impressed by the mention of tissue culture. I have often thought I would like to know more about it, having done physics and chemistry at the university.

I use my garden room for exactly the same reasons. Its warm and relaxing and you can nod off if you want. As long as you have got room, there is no limit to the number of plants you can grow. I have covered the floor, the walls and now much of the ceiling. But I have discovered that there is still room for plants which hang down from the roof.

 

If you have an interest in doing TC you might check out Home Tissue Culture group on Facebook and Kitchen Culture kits. Carol, the owner, is a Ph D. and will email you instructions from her workshop. She will also answer any questions along the way. She has been a big help to me getting started.

http://www.kitchenculturekit.com/

 

Thanks Hydro. I am off on holiday in 2 days time, but will have a longer look at your link. Actually I have got so many plants now and so little room - that I don't think I could make full use of it.

 

Hiya.
Just to take the things on a bit, mine is around 5-6ft tall and getting a bit too large for my fairly small conservatory. Is it possible to cut it back?

 

Yes, you can cut them back Freddy, probably best after flowering, they flower on new wood next year.
Mines gone bonkers, its put up this new shoot in the past couple of weeks.