Friday, February 17, 2012

Flower Friday

I'm a huge fan of Bougainvillea.  A large Bougainvillea in bloom is really a sight to behold, it's absolutely gorgeous.  They'll actually grow relatively well even as houseplants when given a tonne of sun.  The only downside for me is that they have thorns.  For some reason thorns and I don't mix.  I remember my first experience with a rose as a child.  After staring at a lovely flower for about 20 seconds I realized I had grabbed the stem and had a thorn buried deep in my thumb.  For some reason I don't remember what happened after that...

Thorns aside, this is one plant that I would love to have even though I know I'll be tempting fate.  Some varieties even have variegated leaves and you can see that they come in a variety of colours.  They grow readily from cuttings, so maybe I'll ask if I can start one.  Enjoy the lovely blooms!





4 comments:

  1. I knew that Bougainvillea existed, but I didn't really know what they were or what they looked like--I just knew people planted them in their yards and such. That ignorance vanished when I moved to Saudi Arabia. OMG they were everywhere on KAUST's campus. Huge trimmed bush-shapes, vining up trellises homemade by residents, double-blooming purple ones, white ones--well, that was about it, there wasn't a TON of variety of plant life in the landscaping over there, but the Bougainvillea were gorgeous. I tried rooting a cutting once, but I think it was too wet--it rotted. And then I left before I tried again.

    Now I want some--but I don't have outdoor space (again). I think they probably aren't very good indoors--not that I think they wouldn't grow, I just don't think they'd be too happy.

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  2. So pretty! When I worked at Longwood Gardens they had about a dozen 100+ year old bougies growing in the conservatory. They were a sight to behold!

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  3. Kenneth, well I'm glad you at least got to see them in person. I've only seen photos of established plants. The ones in the greenhouses are just a few feet tall. I think they actually lost about half of the cutting that were started. It's hard to get the watering schedule right for those things.

    Tom, that sounds absolutely gorgeous!

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  4. I accidently hit "delete" instead of "publish" for a comment by The Bloomin' Garden (http://thatbloomingarden.blogspot.com/) so here it is:

    I love them as well. When I traveled to Arizona I was shocked to see them growing on all the boulevards, almost like weeds. If only they knew how we would give anything to grow one in our climate.

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