Bougainvillea

Brilliant colour displays over a long season, toughness and and heat tolerance make Bougainvillea ideal for sunny warm-climate gardens.

There are few rivals to this group of plants for profusion of flower colour in a hot climate. With the wide range of colours available, there's lots of potential for variety just with bougainvilleas alone. By appropriate choice of colour, bougainvillea could be incorporated in a variety of garden designs.

While the vivid purples, golds and hot pinks of bougainvillea are synonymous with tropical gardens, the softer pastels and whites could readily be incorporated into a more cottage-style garden in hot climates as substitutes for temperate species. For a white garden in the tropics, choose a white-flowered bougainvillea.

With appropriate cultivar selection and management techniques, Bougainvillea can also be grown in a variety of ways including as container specimens, hedges, standards and, of course, as climbers.

Thorns can be a problem, though, so take care with placement and maintenance. Regular pruning will tame their growth, but as gardens get smaller, finding a place for them (even the so-called dwarf varieties with smaller thorns) gets harder.

If you live in any of the tropical or subtropical regions of Qld, you're likely to find a reasonable selection at local garden centres, although you may have to take pot luck with respect to the flower colours or varieties they have in stock. Most on the retail market these days are likely to be the smaller-growing types.

As one of the premier flowering plants for hot climates, Bougainvillea has previously been discussed in more detail in Get Results Gardening and will be again in the future. The publication is a newsletter-style, email publication for Australians, particularly SE Qld. Whether you're a new gardener or more experienced, there will be interesting and useful information for you in Get Results Gardening. To learn more, including how to get a free trial for yourself, go to calyx.com.au/getresultsgardening.html.

News

Bougainvillea landmark to go

An much-loved bougainvillea on Redbank Plains Road, Ipswich is to be removed as part of a road upgrade. However, Ipswich City Council will be taking cuttings. Plants will be made available to the public at future mobile nursery events, allowing the local landmark to establish a new generation in neighborhood gardens. Source: Plant a piece of Ipswich's iconic bougainvillea (October 2016)

Bougainvilleas in the Landscape

This gallery will be added to over time. The intent will be to demonstrate the manner of growth and possible management strategies for bougainvilleas. Due to the vast array of varieties in existence, not all of the landscape specimens can be indentified, but where possible a good guess will be made based on the types that have been widely grown in Queensland historically. Click for larger images.

Old Purples

'Magnifica' (or 'Magnifica Trailii') is the most common old type and it is assumed that most of the big specimens seen in older gardens are this type. This is also the variety used to cover the arbour at Southbank Parklands in Brisbane. It flowers predominantly in summer. There is also a variegated version. Older literature also refers to a 'Magnifica Improved'. Another older purple called 'Sanderiana' was also sold. It is said to be more compact.

'Smartipants'

Unusual growth habit for a bougainvillea with strong upright canes with closely packed leaves that can be readily maintained as a shrub or even a formal hedge. Intense pink flowers. Sometimes listed as "Smarty Pants" or "Smartie Pants" and also known as 'Pink Pixie', 'Pixie Pink', 'Hawaiian Torch' or 'Torch Glow' in various countries.

'Raspberry Ice'

Locally, the best-known and widely-grown variegated variety. Leaves have cream and green variegation and flowers have raspberry-red bracts.

'Snowcap'

Known in USA as 'Mary Palmer'. Easily recognised by separate pink and white inflorescences borne by the same plant. From a distance, 'Snowcap' looks like two different varieties growing together, but on closer inspection you'll find a mixture of pink and white on a single stem, even a single bract. There is a rarer form of this called 'Vickie' (AKA 'Vicky', 'Vicki', 'Thimma' and 'Harlequin') that also has a gold splash in the centre of the leaves.

'Klong Fire'

Nonyo PBR

Bilas PBR

Pedro PBR

Other examples of landscaping with bougainvilleas:

Bouganvillea cultivars are not uniform in growth

Bouganvillea do not flower well in shade, but the tree cover here is clearly not dense enough to affect flowering adversely. The dominant cultivars here appear to be Bambino® NonyaPBR (mauve) and PedroPBR (orange). QEII hospital, Brisbane, May 2014. A few pink, purple and white blossoms suggest that this planting originally contained a greater range of colours than the lavender and orange that now dominate and illustrates how cultivars can differ in vigour.

Old Bouganvillea trained into treelike form

Superficially this looks like 'Snowcap', but closer inspection suggests it may be 'Klong Fire' (aka 'Mahara'), with some branches sported to a paler coloured inflorescence similar to Limberlost Beauty (aka 'Cherry Blossoms'). Sunnybank, March 2014. This plant is likely about 40 years old.

Bouganvillea

Different inflorescences from the above plant

Assorted unknown varieties

More images will be added over time. However, the decline of online advertising and the rise of content appropriation by AI and others has led to the decision to direct in-depth written content towards the email publication (mini-magazine) Get Results Gardening. If you live in Australia you can request a free trial. More information here: calyx.com.au/getresultsgardening.html

Possible Misspellings: Boganvillea, Bouganvillea, Boganvillia, Bouganvillia, Boganvilla. In older texts it may be spelled Bougainvillaea.

Related Topics:

Bougainvillea species and cultivars