How to prune bougainvillea so that it blooms and fills the pot?

Bougainvillea is popular for its gorgeous flowers, but many flower lovers find that during the maintenance process, the number of flowers gradually decreases over time and the plant shape becomes less beautiful. In fact, through proper pruning, not only can the bougainvillea maintain its beautiful shape, but it can also promote its abundant flowering and even achieve the effect of bursting the pot. So how do you prune Bougainvillea so that it blooms and fills the pot?

1. Pruning method

Pruning bougainvillea is not complicated. The best time to prune is after the flowers have faded. At this time, strong pruning should be carried out to remove the weak buds growing at the bottom, because these buds tend to grow weak due to insufficient light, and even if they bloom, they are not lush enough. At the same time, properly prune the internal crossing branches and weak branches, and only retain those thick branches. According to the overall shape of the plant, the thick branches should be appropriately shortened.

2. Trimming effect

After pruning, the bougainvillea will quickly sprout new buds, with multiple buds growing from the remaining branches. If pruned properly, new shoots will grow from almost every leaf-stem junction, which will become future flowering branches. Because these buds grow from thick branches with concentrated nutrient supply , the branches that grow out will be very strong, and the flowers that bloom will be larger and more beautiful, thus significantly improving the quality of flowering.

3. Seasonal pruning

For flower lovers in the north, autumn is also a good time to prune bougainvillea. Perform a strong pruning according to the above method, retaining a small number of branches to reduce nutrient consumption, helping the plant to survive the cold winter safely and easily overwinter even if the leaves fall.

4. Pruning tips

If you are not familiar with pruning bougainvillea, you can try the above method. This not only ensures that the flower blooms every time, but also allows the flowering period to last for one or two months, or even multiple times a year. In order to promote rapid differentiation of flower buds, proper water control is necessary. In daily maintenance, ensure that the plant is placed in an environment with sufficient light, water it thoroughly after the potting soil is dry, and add high- phosphorus fertilizer . Avoid long-term use of potassium dihydrogen phosphate, and choose fertilizers with high phosphorus content and balanced nutrition. The bougainvillea maintained in this way will bloom year after year.

In general, pruning is very important when growing bougainvillea. Sometimes, the flowers of bougainvillea become fewer and fewer, which may be related to the pruning.