Purple Bougainvillea

About two weeks ago we decided to transplant our sickly purple Bougainvillea. It looked like about half of each plant was dead and they barely had any flowers. The plants were cut back to about 1/3 of their size. We then removed about 1/3 to 1/2 of the rootball and placed them back into the same pots with new soil. It seems they can be pruned very aggressively. In only a few days they were covered with new growth and now they look like full bushes again. This variety has much more compact growth than any of our others. They are covered in flowers.