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Those picture perfect postcard scenes depicting quaint whitewashed houses with azure blue-painted doors and window frames all festooned with brightly coloured bougainvilleas always make you wish you were on holiday.
If your garden can promise plenty of warm sunlight with well-draining soil and mild winter temperatures you, too, may add a touch of holiday to your landscape.
Hailing from South America, the bougainvillea celebrates an all-year floral fiesta provided by the climbers’ colourful leaf bracts rather than flowers. These are the tiny white ones you will find in the bracts’ centre.
They are available in double and single flowers, with colours ranging from white, pink, dusty pink, purple, red and coppery orange.
You may grow a combination of colours together for a stunning affect or simply use them to add splashes of cheery brightness to your landscape.
Their leaves are green but some are variegated such as Bambino Zuki and Tropical Rainbow, with their cream-green flowers tinged with pink and bright cerise bracts.
There is a bougainvillea plant for every application, some of which may be used effectively as ground covers. Others with rampant growth are suited to growing over walls, fences and pergolas. Medium-growers make a wonderful difference to small gardens generally, and the dwarf varieties (Bambinos) are ideal for growing in small gardens or in containers on verandas and patios.
Bougainvilleas are evergreen vines which are covered in treacherous thorns beneath their colourful facade. This makes them ideal for planting on the boundary to keep intruders at bay.
As their growth is heavy and vigorous they need a strong support to grow against.
Here is a selection to choose from:
• Single bougainvillea — Donya is a strong grower which is prized for producing masses of colourful bracts in lilac pink;
• Durban — blooms continuously bearing large bracts of lilac flowers with a hint of pink;
• Indian flame — as its name suggests, has orange flowers which change to bright cerise red;
• Jennifer Fernie — produces large trusses of white flowers;
• The old-fashioned Killie Campbell never fails to impress with its beautiful copper red flowers which change to magenta;
• Poultini Special — noted for its large bright red flowers which fade to a magenta shade;
• Magnifica — is frost tolerant and fast growing with deep purple flowers produced in spring and autumn.
Double bougainvillea shrubs are idea for tub culture. Examples are: Bridal Bouquet recommended for its pink bracts tinged with white; Golden Dubloon which produces salmon coloured sprays; and Philippine Parade which has bracts which start off in soft pink, changing over time to a darker cerise.
Bambinos are a dwarf variety suited to small gardens and containers. They are not fussed about the soil they grow in and are low maintenance. Their colours include coral (Miski), rose (Shaba), white (Panda) and scarlet (Zuki).
How to grow bougainvilleas
Plant them in a warm, sunny position facing due north but once established, let them be. The shrub enjoys well-draining soil and thrives when not fussed over and left almost “neglected”.
Dig a large hole twice the size of the root ball, drop a handful of bone meal in the bottom, and mix some compost and 3:1:5 organic fertiliser with the soil you have dug out. Place the plant in the hole and fill in around it with the enriched soil.
Bougainvilleas need to have a strong root system to thrive and some gardeners believe success in growing them is achieved by not disturbing the sensitive roots on planting.
The advice is that you not even remove the bag the plant is purchased in, but that you simply slit it downwards around the sides and gently at the base so that the plant has access to the soil in the planting hole. This means not even removing the bag at all.
Some bougainvilleas can take up to 18 months to establish themselves before they put on a colourful show.
Watering
Water the plants when young regularly, but once they are established, only at longer intervals. Overwatering will cause the plants to form lush green foliage instead of stems covered in colourful bracts.
They will need to be pruned in midsummer to encourage their bracts to form, rather than leaf growth. Unwanted water shoots, which should be removed, tend to form if the shrub is pruned in midwinter.
On pruning don’t disturb the twiggy growths on the stems as this is where the colourful bracts are most likely to form.
You can train a bougainvillea to grow up a wall, fence, pergola or over an arch. Bear in mind that bougainvilleas can grow to a height of about 4½ metres.
Give your bougainvillea a steady support of a strong trellis, vertically strung wire or chicken wire in a frame attached to the wall on fences or poles leading up to the pergola for it to grow up. Attach the branches loosely to any support provided. You may use cable ties or old stockings to attach the branches to the support.
As the plant develops and climbs, nip off any unwanted growth that doesn’t conform to the growth shape you aspire to achieve.
Avoid bare growth in the centre by removing the tips – to cause bushier growth - when it has reached the desired height.
Flower arranging
Remove all the leaves and thorns and then crush the stems. Add a tablespoon of vinegar to a litre jug of boiling water. Leave them in the water for a couple of minutes. Upon removing them from the water, recut the stems and arrange them.
• “In the Garden” is written by feature writer, garden enthusiast and former teacher Julia Smith, who has returned “home” to live in Chintsa East. The column looks to inform both novice and accomplished gardeners how to make the most of their green patches
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