My Rescued bougainvillea #1

Hi all,

So for a short story.. I found 3 bougies left un-attended somewhere in our community plaza.  Used to be placed at our pyramid-shaped shed which was the center of our subdivision. The home owners changed the landscape to plants which were planted directly to the ground so these bougies were set aside. A few of our neighbours took some of them and these 3 were left on the perimeter wall and was left there. So mid last year I asked permission to take it with me and care for it. I wasn't sure whether they would survive or not. Luckily all 3 survived. Sorry didn't took a picture of their state when I got them. Some branches were removed either because they were dead or because they were just too long in order for me to carry them back home.

Here's one of them.





These photos were taken early this year, maybe around 5-6 months after I took them home. It recovered well so far. Around 2 weeks ago, I re potted it and did some root and branch ( no big branches just the small/new ones ) pruning since if you can see, the roots went down then back up and out of the soil then went back in. There was almost no soil left on the pot and the roots were BIG. the only soil that was left was just on the top most part around 1/4 of the pot and the rest down were roots. I gambled and took the chance to prune the roots.  

Here's the aftermath. Some weeks after.





Right now it has a 2 inch thick base and it's currently around 10 inches tall. I will let it grow wild again to enable it to develop more roots since I removed most of them. I thought I killed it but when I saw the buds and new leave popping out.. yey..  it survived. time to share it. I'm planning on removing the lowest horizontal branch but I think it would be best to do it after it has recovered. Or maybe just kill that branch by removing the bark. Now that's a maybe.  

For the other 2 maybe I'll do the same method and will share the results later. ( if they'll survive. )

nice job with FREE material (the best kind !!!)

any thoughts of losing that lowest ground hugging branch at some point ?
(not saying you should or shouldnt... just wondering)

Yes, I already said it on the first post but at that time I was not sure whether to just cut it or to make a dead branch. After taking care of my #2, I would go with just cutting it. They really have a very soft wood and I don't have the means to preserve dead wood so better to just cut it and hope that the wound would heal.

By the way here's #2.. this one had the worst state when I brought them home. It was 80% dead..
a few months after I had rescued them..  


Around 2 weeks ago I was transferring it in a smaller container same as what I did with #1..   sadly the dead trunk broke off. I unintentionally hit it while I was removing the soil.


I don't know if this is a fail, only time could tell..   So here it is today doing great, I think I'll just let it grow and give it to my mother once I can build up foliage and shoot some more flowers..  

novsai_Koloy wrote:Yes, I already said it on the first post but at that time I was not sure whether to just cut it or to make a dead branch. After taking care of my #2, I would go with just cutting it. They really have a very soft wood and I don't have the means to preserve dead wood so better to just cut it and hope that the wound would heal.

sorry - i missed that...

re: preserving dead wood, i would think you would be able to find something locally for doing that...
a type of product designed to preserve wood or stop soft rot in building applications that it is applied prior to painting...

not a fill product but a liquid to be absorbed product.

here in north america we have several choices like minwax wood hardener

Thanks Kev.. I will check our local hardware for such products..