Bougainvillea growing leggy and not blooming? Beginners who learn to water properly can turn it into a blooming machine

I started growing bougainvillea in May last year. At first, I watered based on my experience with other flowers, watering thoroughly whenever the surface of the potting soil looked dry and hard. But from May all the way to September, these bougainvilleas did not bloom a single flower, they just kept growing leggy, and quite a few problems appeared, such as rotting leaves and stunted growth. By September, I used light control to force out quite a few flowers, but problems came along with it: as soon as the buds appeared, they kept turning black and dropping, and the ones that finally opened began to drop flowers, so the blooming period was over in just a few days.

While controlling light, I also tried water control on several pots. Through water control I found that bougainvillea is quite drought-tolerant. After the surface of the potting soil dries out, even under strong sun, bougainvillea can hold out for at least 2-3 days before the leaves show wilting. From this I realized that bougainvillea actually does not need too much water, and that my previous watering had all been wrong, watering too frequently. All the problems that appeared in bougainvillea, such as growing leggy without blooming, rotting leaves, rotting roots, stunted growth, black buds, flower drop and so on, were caused by too much water.

So starting this year, I greatly reduced how often I water the bougainvillea. Even when the surface of the potting soil looks dry, I do not water; I wait until the inside has dried out completely before watering. The results of reducing watering have been remarkable. First of all, it saves water. The amount I water now is less than one third of what it was before. Then, many problems vanished, such as growing leggy without blooming, rotting leaves, rotting roots, stunted growth, black buds, flower drop and so on, which never appeared again. And the biggest benefit is that the bougainvillea has become a blooming machine. Around this year's Spring Festival it had just finished blooming, and after pruning following the bloom, as soon as it sprouted it was all flower buds. This blooming period also lasted longer, and in the end I only pruned them off after the flowers dried. Because the blooming period is long, from New Year's Day until now, the bougainvillea on the balcony has never been without flowers, always keeping about 10 pots in bloom.

You have to wait until the bougainvillea potting soil is completely dry. When there are only a few flowers it is easy, but when there are many it is hard to judge. Later I came up with a method: insert a popsicle stick beside each pot. When watering, pull it out and check. Water only when the soil below is also dry. As long as the soil on the popsicle stick is wet, resolutely do not water even if the surface potting soil has turned pale. Popsicle sticks are widely available online in all kinds of sizes, very cheap, just a few cents each.

The popsicle stick in the pot of Green Cherry Blossom

This multicolor grafted one was originally going to have some purple and yellow grafted on after blooming, but it turns out it does not rest at all. As soon as it sprouts, there are flower buds, and quite a lot of buds too, so it should put on a small burst of blooms