Brought to you by Black Orchid Management, Ltd.
If you were to ask me what I like most about flowers, I will tell you, they make me happy. They are beautiful to look at. Have you ever seen someone gaze upon a beautiful flower and stay in a bad mood? NEVER! Flowers, lift our spirits, they can change our mood, they make us happy and it is the one way, that we can tell someone we love them, simply by handing them a flower. Please follow me on my journey through the Belize rain forest jungle, to explore all the different flowers there are to see. I sincerely hope you enjoy my series entitled "Flowers of Belize".
Well, this is another one of my favorite flowers, or should I say flowering vine? You are going to soon find out, that I cannot decide which flower is the prettiest, or the best. They are all like gift wrapping bows that decorate our country from head to toe.
The Bougainvillea is a vining plant that grows up to 40 feet tall. The plant can be pruned to be grown as a tree or shrub, or can be trained to vine up a trellis,, or a wall. The stems of the bougainvillea are covered in sharp thorns, and care should be trimmed when pruning.
The Bougainvillea is named after a French admiral in the French navy who discovered this tropical flower in 1768. It can be found in the tropical and subtropical parts of Belize, it climbs upwards and even over other plants. Although it mostly like an evergreen, this tropical flower can actually shed its leaves and survive if there is a dry season. You can find bougainvilleas in a wide variety of colors: pink, magenta, purple, red, orange, white or yellow. The bougainvillea--is also known as the "paper flower plant", I think because the peddle are paper thin. The bouganvillea is also a flowering perennial plant.
The colorful, showy part of the bougainvillea is not actually the flower. These are colorful "bracts" which surround the true flowers. The bougainvillea flowers are short tubes that often open up to reveal tiny plain white flowers. Because the bracts are so colorful, many people never even notice that there are tiny flowers in the center.
The bougainvillea requires very little water. If it rains in your area once or twice a month, you will not need to supplement with additional hand watering. In arid locations, bougainvilleas need water weekly or bi-weekly through the spring and summer. During the fall, bougainvilleas need water only if there is no rain for a month. Bougainvilleas go dormant during the winter, and require no water at all during this time. Over-watering bougainvillea halts the production of flowers and may eventually kill the plant.
Bougainvillea prefers soil that drains quickly and cannot tolerate sitting in wet soil. The bougainvillea's root system is delicate and rots when it is exposed to prolonged wetness. The plant grows best in loamy or sandy soil. If you have clay or rich, water-retaining soil, mix it with gardening sand or perlite at a ratio of 1:1 to provide proper drainage.
Propagation Bougainvillea is a strong, prolific grower and grows easily from cuttings. Cuttings can be green or woody growth. To grow a new bougainvillea from a cutting, place a cutting that is at least 6 inches long into moist (not wet) soil. To hasten growth, use rooting hormone powder on the cut end of the cutting before planting it in soil.
We absolutely love Bougainvilleas in any courtyard setting where you want a climbing, flowering vine.