Why won't the bougainvillea bloom? You accidentally cut off the flowering branches, so for now there are no flowers to be had

One of the reasons why the bougainvillea won't bloom: the flowering branches were pruned. In other words, the branches that could bloom were cut off, so for the time being it has no branches left that can flower.

The bougainvillea blooms at the leaf axils of new branches, unlike roses, which bloom at the tips.

After it finishes blooming, there are two ways it grows new branches:

First, the terminal bud keeps growing and pushes out a section of new branch,

Second, side branches grow from the leaf axils. Everyone knows that after pinching (cutting off the terminal bud), side branches grow easily. After one round of flowers fades, cutting off that section of branch that has already bloomed is what most people do, and there is nothing wrong with that.

After cutting it off, side branches will grow and it will bloom again.

It takes some time for new buds to sprout and grow into branches that can flower, apparently about a month,

Are you sure you waited long enough?

And in summer, when it rains there is plenty of water, and when it doesn't rain the plant tends to wilt, so you can't help but water it often. That is why, unlike in the dry season, the bougainvillea doesn't show flower buds when the branches are still very short.

So at this stage, when people see very long branches, some can't help but prune again before flower buds appear on the new branches,,, and then of course it can't bloom.

So why is my bougainvillea such a prolific bloomer, yet its shape is so unruly (all sprawling and wild)? Because I didn't prune it; after blooming, the terminal bud keeps growing and it blooms again. Terminal buds grow faster than side buds, after all.

The small seedling blooming now wasn't pinched in time, so its branches are very, very long, right?

For seedlings of the same batch and same variety that were pinched and pruned, there are no flowers, but you can see that many more side branches have formed, right? They are actually very long too, and I am waiting for them to bloom. Some people think the shape in the picture above still isn't good enough and want to keep pinching, but then it will bloom even less quickly.