After the blooming period of the bougainvillea, how should it be maintained? How should bougainvillea be cared for after its flowers fade?

How to Care for Bougainvillea After Blooming

This topic introduces how to care for bougainvillea after blooming. The site editor will provide an introduction for netizens.

How to Care for Bougainvillea After Blooming

Although bougainvillea has a long blooming period, the continuous blooming time is short. When caring for it, it is essential to handle the dormant period properly, prune appropriately, and then increase fertilization and water management more than usual. Achieving a balance between reproductive growth and nutritional growth will allow the bougainvillea to have a reasonable physiological growth. This will ensure a full bloom in the later stage.

How to Care for Bougainvillea During the Dormant Period

First, Pruning After Blossoms Fade

After the bougainvillea flowers fall, many flower peduncles remain in the branches and take a long time to naturally dry and fall off. However, they continue to consume nutrients and moisture during this stage, requiring timely pruning.

Based on the shape of the bougainvillea, prune the flower peduncles and remove the slender, unnecessary branches to reduce nutrient consumption.

During pruning, also trim the adventitious buds that grow during the flowering stage and some branches that are not suitable for the bonsai, such as inner branches, dense branches, and smothered branches. For the overly long branches, do some moderate shortening to promote the growth of lateral buds.

Second, Fertilization

After the bougainvillea finishes blooming, it consumes a large amount of nutrients, and we reduce the supplementation of the "nitrogen" element when promoting blooming.

Use mainly nitrogen-containing "urea" for fertilization to quickly supplement the "nitrogen" element, which is beneficial for the rapid recovery of branches and leaves and promotes the growth of lateral buds. Use urea for the initial fertilization, applying it twice with an interval of about 15 days.

About 20 days after applying urea twice, you can use organic fertilizers containing a mix of elements "nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium" to supplement the elements.

"Phosphorus and potassium" can promote root growth and photosynthesis, and are beneficial for the rejuvenation of bougainvillea. They also promote blooming, so it's best to use nitrogen in the first two fertilizations during the dormant period, followed by organic fertilizers with comprehensive nutrients.

Third, Watering Method

During the blooming period, we usually control the water intake for bougainvillea because excessive water can accelerate its metabolism and affect the blooming effect. During the dormant period, you can return to the normal watering management method.

Mainly based on the dry and wet state of the soil, follow the principle of "water only when the soil is not dry, and water thoroughly when watering." There is no need to let the flower soil dry completely before watering. When the topsoil is dry without moisture about 3 to 5 centimeters deep, you can water thoroughly.

Fourth, Pinching the Top

After pruning the bougainvillea during the dormant period and applying generous fertilization and watering, new buds will grow quickly.

When they grow to about 10 centimeters with two formed leaves, you can pinch the top of the new branches, leaving two bud points. This will cause new buds to appear again. This can promote multiple bud points to grow on the lateral branches in a short time. The secondary growth of lateral buds prevents the new branches from growing excessively long and forms a compact canopy.

The above introduction provides a comprehensive overview of how to care for bougainvillea after blooming, hoping to bring some knowledge about green plants to greenery enthusiasts.