Bougainvillea - care and maintenance in the open field
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The wall, completely covered with clusters of crimson, white, lilac yellow flowers, is bougainvillea. The capricious southern guest, with proper care, pleases the owners with beauty all summer long.
The origin and appearance of the bougainvillea plant
At home in South America, this tropical plant blooms for 9 months a year. For its unusual shape, gardeners from different countries fell in love with him. Now it can be found in Europe, Asia and on the territory of our country.
Bougainvillea gives a special decor to the house, quickly creates flower arches
Description of the flower
Liana bougainvillea in natural conditions with creeping branches with thorns clings to natural or artificial supports, its shoots grow in any direction.
The structure of the inflorescence is interesting: the flowers themselves are small white on a thin long stem, grouped in 2-3 pieces. Large, brightly colored, papery-like petals are bracts. They are very dense and in places completely obscure the leaves.
Bougainvillea flower looks like a product of a talented needlewoman
Types and varieties
There are 18 wild species in nature. For the cultivation of bougainvillea in Russian gardens, 3 of them have been acclimatized.
Bougainvillea is beautiful
Her homeland is Brazil. It grows in tropical forests on rocky mountain slopes, gradually entwining them with a dense carpet. In gardening, it is used to decorate the walls of houses, fences, gazebos. Leaves are dense, covered with villi, bracts of various red shades, aging, lose brightness. The inflorescences are panicle-like.
Bougainvillea nude
The home of naked bougainvillea is Brazil, but drier regions. It differs from the "beautiful" relative in a small number of thorns. The leaves are smooth, without fibers, with a sharp tip. Shoots represent a full-fledged vine. Bracts in natural conditions are lilac, breeders have bred varieties of yellow, white, red, pink color.
Bougainvillea Peruvian
The homeland of this species is Peru and Colombia. This bougainvillea is a weakly branching shrub with short thorns, round leaves and double bracts that are red or purple. In horticulture, it is recommended to prune it intensively in order to activate the growth of side shoots and give the bush a splendor.
All 3 species cross well, breeders develop new varieties of garden bougainvillea of spectacular shapes and colors.
Transplant after acquisition in open ground
A tropical plant in the open field in Russia will grow on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and Crimea, subject to shelter for the winter. The most favorable growing temperature is + 25 ° C. At + 5 ° C, it gets sick, and at 0 ° C, it dies.
At the latitude of the Moscow region, cultivation and care in a winter garden and greenhouses are permissible for bougainvillea. Another way of cultivation: in the spring it is taken out into the open air, and in the fall it is returned to the house.
What is needed for landing
To make a green pet feel good, it is grown in large tubs and containers.Soil for large potted plants is purchased at garden supply stores. The soil should be slightly alkaline. Drainage must be placed on the bottom of the container so that the earth allows moisture and air to pass through.
Choosing the best place
A resident of the tropics loves bright sunlight; for planting, they choose the southern side of the site or house, protected from strong winds.
Step-by-step planting process
To plant a plant, you need to take a few simple steps:
- Drainage is poured into the container by 1/3.
- Then add soil to a volume of ½.
- Place the seedling.
- They fill up the soil, compact it.
- Water abundantly.
Bougainvillea of different colors in one interior adds sun and joy to the owner
Bougainvillea: how to propagate
For all the capriciousness of the plant, solving the problem of how to propagate bougainvillea is not difficult.
Propagation by cuttings
Bougainvillea cuttings are carried out in the spring, when many shoots remain after pruning the bushes. Lignified are isolated from the whole mass, they are cut into pieces of 10-15 cm necessarily under the kidney. There should be 3-4 healthy leaves on the handle.
The prepared material is placed in settled warm water. After a few hours, it is treated with a drug that stimulates plant growth. The bottom 2 leaves are cut off and placed in a mixture of peat and sand, dipping to the 2nd internode (the growth point of the third leaf from the bottom). After that, the cuttings are watered abundantly and a mini-greenhouse is arranged, covering each cutting with a large jar or fixing covering material over them.
Each subsequent day, the structure is opened, aired and the twigs are sprayed. Rooting takes place within a month, after which a new bougainvillea is taken out into the street for permanent residence.
Bougainvillea cuttings will turn into full-fledged vines next season
Growing from seeds
Fruits are taken from good healthy bushes. The pods are hidden inside the dried bracts. They ripen in late autumn, so the whole process takes place in winter.
The soil is prepared from garden soil, sand and peat (ratio 2: 1: 1). The extracted seeds are sown in a container at a shallow depth, sprinkled with earth and lightly watered. The container is placed under the film. The optimum temperature for germination is from +25 to +30 ° C. To do this, turn on fluorescent lamps at a height of 25 cm from the soil level.
Light watering is carried out as the soil dries up with simultaneous airing. Seedlings appear in 2-3 months. The backlight is also left after the emergence of shoots.
Bougainvillea: care and maintenance in the open field
After wintering, the plants are transferred to street mode, with an average daily temperature above +10 ° C. Bougainvillea begins to grow actively, the lashes are stretched up to 3 m in length. The main care and maintenance of bougainvillea in the open field is timely watering and pruning.
Watering mode
Water bougainvillea in the garden in the morning abundantly 2 times a week with settled water heated in the sun. In hot weather, the leaves are sprayed daily.
With a lack of moisture, the plant sheds green leaves, with an excess and stagnation, the foliage first turns yellow, then falls off.
During the period of prolonged rains and cold snaps, the plant is protected with a film. The optimum daytime temperature for flowering is from +21 to +25.
Top dressing
Young plants are fertilized once a week, older ones - once every 2 weeks with a complex fertilizer containing nitrogen and phosphorus. How to feed an adult bougainvillea for flowering depends on what is at hand. It is best to fertilize it with a composition containing potassium, phosphorus and iron once every 2 months.Before each planting procedure, they are pre-watered.
Features of care during flowering
The first step is to properly trim the bougainvillea:
- In spring, the twigs are shortened by 10-13 cm for the rapid growth of lateral shoots. The plant will become voluminous. The growth of the current year is cut slightly, since it is he who gives new buds.
- In the summer, dry flowers, leaves and shoots that violate the planned shape are removed.
For bougainvillea in the garden, you can create special supports of original shapes from wire, willow or bamboo. Climbing bush will fill them with pleasure.
You can turn bougainvillea into a tree: a stalk is attached to the frame of a given shape. When it grows up to the intended crown, the growth point is pinched, the lower lateral shoots are removed completely, only the upper ones are left. The formation of the crown of bougainvillea takes several years until the main trunk and skeletal branches become stiff.
Plants are transplanted into a large container with a significant reduction in fresh growth.
Preparing for winter
With the threat of night frosts, bougainvillea in a tub or container is transferred to a room, to diffused sunlight, at a temperature not higher than +16, for example, to a warm loggia. The branches that grew last summer are shortened by half.
Features of care during the rest period
Winter care consists in rare watering so that the roots do not dry out.
If you follow exactly useful tips, a capricious beauty will delight the owners for at least 10 years - this is how much the plant lives in garden conditions.
