Bougainvillea grows leggy without blooming; one little trick makes buds shoot up and flowers bloom for 200 days

Bougainvillea, also known as paperflower, has vivid colors, abundant flowers, and a long blooming period. If the temperature is suitable, with sufficient sunlight reaching ten hours a day, and proper water and fertilizer, it can bloom for more than half the year, reaching over two hundred days. Some flower lovers grow bougainvillea that blooms profusely, with flowers continuing uninterrupted through autumn, but why do the bougainvilleas grown by some friends always grow leggy without blooming?

If your bougainvillea does not bloom in autumn, try this little trick: buds will grow rapidly, and once it starts blooming it will last for months!

It is autumn, and bougainvillea has entered another peak growing season. Many flower lovers' bougainvilleas are still blooming beautifully at this time. If you want your bougainvillea to bloom in time, try these methods:

Control water in time

If you water bougainvillea too much for a long time and the potting soil stays moist, that is actually not good for blooming. If you have been watering it fairly regularly, then let it dry out a bit appropriately and gradually reduce the frequency of watering, starting from watering once a day, to watering once every two or three days, then wait until the leaves look somewhat wilted and reddish, then water thoroughly. This can encourage it to grow flower buds. Once buds appear, increase the amount of watering.

Increase light

Then there is more sun exposure. Especially for potted bougainvilleas grown indoors, insufficient light seriously affects blooming; it will only grow branches and become leggy, with no flower buds in sight. So in autumn, just give it sun freely and let it get plenty of sun. Only then can it bloom abundantly. Give it as much full sun as possible in a day; a sunlight duration of more than eight hours is best.

Keep fertilizing

Especially in autumn, in September and October, when it reaches the peak period of blooming and growth, fertilizing is particularly important. Supplement with phosphorus and potassium fertilizers; you can use some slow-release fertilizer or flower fertilizers, all are fine. In short, regularly water with some fertilizer water.

There is also decomposed chicken manure fertilizer water, cake fertilizer water, and alum fertilizer water, and occasionally spray some monopotassium phosphate. Only with heavy fertilizer and heavy water can it accumulate energy and nutrients, promote the differentiation and growth of flower buds, and smoothly make the bougainvillea bloom.

In addition, the blooming period of bougainvillea differs slightly between northern and southern regions. If you have done all three points above and it still does not bloom, then patiently wait for its blooming period to arrive. If grown in a greenhouse in the north, it generally blooms from March to July, but if grown elsewhere, it can bloom from June to December and even into winter and spring; generally around October is the peak blooming period!

The purple bougainvillea you have seen can bloom until the time of Spring Festival, and then around May 1st it will bloom again in a burst.