bougainvillea pruning

Can you prune a boug. past all the foliage and it form new buds??? i have one the nursery gave me so thought i better ask about it....also time to do this work...thanks in advance john

Yup!
You can prune right back into hardwood and they'll back bud at the nearest node and sometimes even further down, seal the ends of your cuts, its best however to do this in say early july when they are growing strong.
I did it this summer with a branch that I "over flexed" so I just stumped it and its re-grown nicely.

One of my bougies, which I've been training for 16 years, was given an accidental over-fertilization. All it's leaves started to shrivel and I drenched it several times but it lost all the leaves. I really thought it was a "goner" so I cut back on all the branches and treated it like a new transplant. After three weeks it has started putting out new leaves and has sent new shoots from old wood.

One thing about the bougies is they seem to do well when almost root-bound and can be cut back hard. Plus here in Minnesota they love my tropical setup and bloom at least twice every winter.

Norma

(I think my son took a photo of the bougie before it was poisoned....if I can find it, will post)

My Bougy was severely pot bound, I had nice flowering (which the restriction seems to aid) yet new growth was VERY restricted of course. I wanted to improve vegetative growth for restyling the apex and repotting and a root trim was all she needed to Explode with growth, Alas I may not see flowers for some years as she begins to fill her pot again, but I'm trying to get good foliage mats then we'll try for flowers again. One thing I like about Bougys is that you can build nice foliage thats very drippy looking, kind of a melting like effect, and thats enjoyable even without flowers.

here's the photo of the bougie:




Sorry the trunk is hard to see against the redwood fence, if it's nice tomorrow I get a shot of how it's budding!

Norma

she looks great Norma! Its amazing how they can bounce back. My wife has told me some gardeners down in Louisiana HATE them because you just cant kill them. She was a native.

Thank you both for your reply!! I guess i can,t do much till next year..this plant has a pretty good trunk but the limbs are real leggy..it is in a nursery pot also Thank you take care john