How to Remedy If Bougainvillea Doesn't Bloom
Today's article will delve into how to remedy Bougainvillea that doesn't bloom and share some tips on Bougainvillea care and plant knowledge. Here is a comprehensive introduction to follow.
Bougainvillea enters its blooming season in autumn, which is its best flowering period. However, many people find that their Bougainvillea doesn't bloom. If you want your Bougainvillea to bloom quickly, you need to look for reasons from "four" directions and make appropriate adjustments to ensure continuous blooming. Since Bougainvillea is a variety that blooms throughout the year, it will bloom as long as the temperature is suitable and conditions are met. I'll give you a brief explanation today.
1. Potting Soil
Many flower enthusiasts have a common characteristic when growing Bougainvillea: they plant it in a large pot and water it excessively when they want to water it. In fact, the pot and soil are key to successfully growing Bougainvillea. If the pot is too large, it's hard to grow well. Therefore, we should choose an appropriate pot for home use. If you want to grow it well, use a smaller pot and well-draining soil. Garden soil is not suitable. I grow Bougainvillea directly in garden soil, but my conditions are met with plenty of sunlight, so you can't imitate me.
You can directly use nutrient-rich soil and use an ordinary terracotta pot, a smaller one. Frequent watering is fine, but you must ensure the soil can dry quickly. For example, the pot should be able to dry within a day or two after watering in our home environment. This type of pot and soil is the best. Don't just plant it in a large pot with water-retaining soil to save trouble. Otherwise, you'll find that the Bougainvillea leaves keep growing but no flower buds form. Eventually, the leaves become very large, and the branches grow long, which is the reason.
2. Sunlight
Bougainvillea is a tropical flower. There are many people in the southern regions who grow Bougainvillea outdoors in their gardens or in a sunny position to ensure normal growth and good flowering performance. Bougainvillea loves strong sunlight and requires adequate sunlight throughout its growing period. If the sunlight is insufficient, the internode spacing will lengthen, the leaves will become smaller, and flower buds will not differentiate.
The longer the daylight hours, the stronger the flowering performance and the greater the number of flowers. The flowers will be more vibrant, and conversely, they won't bloom or the flower color will fade. If flower buds have formed and you move it to a dark place, it will cause the flower buds to fall off and shorten the blooming period. Therefore, to grow Bougainvillea well, it must be placed in a position with sufficient sunlight. Insufficient light is not good, and the sunlight should not be less than six hours, preferably eight hours or more.
3. Pruning
Don't assume that the more branches your Bougainvillea has, the more flowers it will produce. When grown in a pot, its roots are limited and can't grow too much. If you plant it in a small pot and let it grow too many branches, it's hard to imagine it blooming with insufficient nutrient supply. So, we should prune it reasonably throughout the growing period. When the branches are lush, we should cut off the thin and weak ones, leaving only the thick ones. If the thick branches are too long, we should cut them back, leaving some buds. These buds will grow new shoots while the roots absorb nutrients, and the new shoots will bloom.
So, cut off the extra branches and try to keep fewer of them. Because when it blooms, a single bud will produce flowers continuously, eventually covering the whole crown. It's not that the more branches there are, the more flowers there will be. And after each flowering, we should prune it heavily, cutting off all thin and weak branches, leaving only the strong ones, and then cutting them back. This cycle should continue, allowing it to bloom again after each flowering.