Bougainvillea shaping tips: prune this way for a more beautiful plant shape

The pruning period for bougainvillea is generally between November and December. With proper care, it can bloom continuously all year round. Therefore, after flowering, it should be pruned moderately: cut off the flower stalks, shorten the flowering branches by 1/3, and thin out weak branches, short branches and inner branches.

In winter, prune together with repotting and changing the soil. Pruning should follow the principles of short, heavy and thin. Short means heading back, keeping 1/3 of the branch; heavy means heavy pruning of long flowering branches; thin means thinning out weak branches so that strong branches regrow, also called renewal pruning. The cut branches can be kept as cuttings for propagation. In the south, where bougainvillea is planted for flower trellises, fences and courtyards, it does not go dormant or lose its leaves in winter, so only light pruning is needed, but it should be tied, spread out and trained so that the branches on the trellis are evenly and reasonably distributed and cover the whole trellis.

Bougainvillea, the shaped flowering plant, is a trailing vine-like woody plant with soft, long branches that needs a frame for shaping and management. Bougainvillea can be shaped in many ways, generally mostly in the basket shape and the triangular round-head shape. The shape should be graceful, small and exquisite, with branches coiled and tied in an orderly way, and the flower clusters concentrated at the top. After flowering, the blooms are concentrated and fill the space, giving a three-dimensional effect.