Pruning

Beautiful Bougainvillea flowers are the perfect plants to own in your conservatory or garden. With the right care and attention, you will be reaping the rewards for years to come. At Westdale Nurseries, we’ve put together this quick and easy guide to pruning and maintaining your Bougainvillea plants, so they can grow to their full potential.

• Bougainvillea flowers require great sunlight so are best placed in a bright and sunny position with full sunlight, such as conservatories. Their climbing nature means they can be directly planted in large containers to grow freely. In the summer, Bougainvillea plants can be placed in the garden to soak up the sun and thrive. However, come the winter time, bougainvillea should be protected from the frost.
• Due to Bougainvillea’s climbing quality, they are the perfect plants to train and guide with trellis and pillars for support. This is best performed in early spring before bloom and growth to get the most out of the bougainvillea in your desired direction.
• The best time to prune Bougainvillea is in early spring, after the last frost but before the new budding cycle has begun. Make sure you are wearing protection; Bougainvillea plants are notorious for their thick thorns. It can be scary to start cutting but take a deep breath and go for it. Start with any and all dead, diseased or discoloured sections. After you’ve done this, wipe your shears so that you don’t transfer anything harmful to the healthy plant.
• Next, you want to cut back to a node in the branch or flush with the main branch to encourage a healthy growth cycle. It’s also worth pruning large and obtrusive branches that blocks and prevents the plan from growing to its full potential in the sun.
• When watering your bougainvillea plant, you should wait until the soil is quite dry as they are quite tolerant of drought. However, every three to four weeks bougainvillea love to be thoroughly watered. With so much water, it’s important to have adequate drainage, to prevent rot.

If you have more questions about caring for Bougainvillea or would like more information about Bougainvillea plants in general, check out our Bougainvillea FAQs. You can also browse our shop for our wide varieties of bougainvillea from all over the world.