Bougainvillea

Family Nyctaginaceae. Native to Brazil. In the wild bougainvillea is a vigorous woody vine, a spreading shrub, or even a small tree.

The small inconspicuous yellow-white flowers of bougainvillea are surrounded by three bracts up to 6 cm long. Often these brightly colored bracts are incorrectly called the flowers by the public. In modern cultivars they occur in various colors: purple, violet, orange, red, pink, peach, cream and white. Two-colored bougainvilleas or those that change color during flowering are not uncommon.

Bougainvillea bracts can have a variety of shapes (rounded, heart-shaped, arrow-shaped, triangular) and margins (scalloped, wavy, serrated, etc.).

Because bougainvillea’s long flexible young shoots become woody with age, it is easy to shape. Depending on preferences and possibilities, it is grown as a standard-headed small tree, a vine, or a shrub. With the help of supports the plant can be given various outlines: pyramids, spheres, wreaths, etc.

In a greenhouse or winter garden bougainvillea is most often planted in a large tub or directly into the greenhouse soil near a south-facing wall, grown as a vine or a large spreading shrub. In this case it becomes very lush, becoming more beautiful year by year. In summer such specimens turn into a spectacular waterfall of "flowers" that completely hides the leaves and shoots.

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