Oh My My Bougainvillea

Start a new plant on frequent deep water and spread the soaks out to about weekly by the end of its first summer. A rooted plant does well on a soak about every 7 to 10 days in summer and about monthly in winter. Wait for the soil to dry before you water again.

Do the main trimming in spring after frost danger has passed. A light trim after each flush of bloom brings new growth, and new growth is where the color forms. Wear gloves and long sleeves, since the stems have thorns.

Frost around 28 to 32°F damages the stems, and after a freeze the plant drops its leaves and rests. Use frost cloth, not plastic, when frost is forecast. Wait for new growth in spring before you prune, then cut to just above it.

Feed it lightly once in spring and skip fertilizer in winter. More feeding than that gives you more leaves and fewer bracts.

Chewed, ragged leaves with tiny black droppings point to the bougainvillea looper, a small inchworm that feeds at night. Established plants outgrow the damage without help. Treat young plants or bad damage with a BT caterpillar spray.

Drainage test first. Dig the hole and fill it with water. If water is still sitting in the hole a day later, you likely hit caliche, clay or hard soil, so fix the drainage before planting. If it drains very fast, the soil is sandy. Standing water around roots is a common reason new plants fail.

Weed cloth. Cut it away from the planting hole and where the roots will spread. Remove any plastic sheeting completely, since it keeps water and air out of the soil.

Rock or decomposed granite with no soil underneath. Bring in soil close in texture to your native soil, mix it with the soil below, and build up enough depth for roots before planting.

If you can break through. Use a breaker bar, pick, or jackhammer. Dig through the caliche and break out the solid chunks. Backfill with the soil you dug out, with no compost or manure in the hole. Confirm drainage before planting.

If you cannot break through. Dig narrow holes through the hard layer beside the root ball, not under it, and refill them with the same soil, not gravel. If it still will not drain, plant on a low mound of the same soil.

Root ball. Check the outside edges for any roots circling around. Loosen or cut those so they grow outward. Do not break up the center of the root ball.

Depth. The top of the root ball should sit at or just slightly above the surrounding soil level. Planting too deep can lead to rot and kill the plant.

Drip emitters. At planting, put the emitters on the root ball, on different sides of the plant. After about 2 months, move them to the outer edge of the root ball. Over the first year, add emitters farther out toward the edge of the branches as roots grow. Once a plant is rooted, never water only at the trunk.