Purple Queen Bougainvillea

Water often while it gets rooted, tapering to about once a week through the first summer. Once rooted, soak it about every 7 to 10 days in summer and about once a month in winter. Let the soil dry between waterings, since extra water means fewer bracts.

Do the main pruning in spring once frost danger has passed, with light trims after each bloom flush. If you grow it on a support, tie new stems with strong ties. Wear gloves and long sleeves for the thorns.

Cover it with frost cloth, not plastic, on frost nights. A freeze can drop its leaves, and it rests until spring. Leave any damage in place until new growth shows, then cut back to just above it.

Give one light feeding in spring and none in winter. Heavy feeding pushes leaves instead of color.

Small green or brown inchworms chew ragged leaf edges at night and leave tiny black droppings. Healthy plants handle it, so treat only young plants or heavy damage with BT.

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.