Marcia, I love them plants but dont like to be bleeding every time I have to trim them or haul the waste can on recycling day. Did they have any without thorns yet?

Hi
They certainly are fantastic aren't they?? Had one growing
on a four foot fence lol Built a shadehouse to hold it up which worked great until Wilma . I have repeatedly sprayed it with roundup and it's still sprouting.
I think the best way to grow them unless you have a lot of room is either in hanging baskets or standards. You can dwarf them into a tree form which is great but takes a lot of time or spend the bucks on one already started.
Tony
There really is a thornless variety?? Have asked at several nursuries and two of them laughed at me lol None that I've seen are thornless though some seem to have a lot less than others. Do you have any names to the cultivars??
Marcia If you have the room and don't mind the blood donations when you prune. Thaey are almost a "perfect" plant except for those two drawbacks.
Was recently drawn to one a copper color learning toward brown than yellow. Such a remarkable color. gary

Hi Gary,

I was 'asking' if any new ones ARE thornless. To me, they are truly a love / hate plant to have around.

I've never minded the thorns because I've always planted them where they were free to grow as large as they wanted, and I never pruned them.

I was mostly amazed at the new colors, and the new "style" of some of them. Nothing like I had ever seen before. I'm going to go search and see if I can find a photo to post.

Marcia

Interesting stuff out there! Besides the fact that I spelled it wrong, I learned that the clustered variety I mentioned above is NOT Imperial Delight...as is often the case, Home Depot's labels were wrong. Imperial Delight or Imperial Thai Delight is the beautiful white & pink one. I think I have to give it a try.

The unusual one with clustered blooms is apparently Pink Pixie. Very different!

And I learned that bougainvilleas have very sensitive roots that you do not want to disturb when you are planting them. One nursery recommended planting new ones in the nursery pot, with the bottom cut out.

I put one in a hanging basket last year and watched it die over a 3 week period. Now I know what probably happened. I was too rough on the roots! Can't wait to try again!

Marcia

Here is a link that might be useful: Imperial Delight Bougainvillea

yes, There are some thornless bougainvilleas

I have a boug. that is pink and white. It isn't thornless but it has alot less thorns than most bougs.

Ariel

Here is a link that might be useful: Thornless Bougs

Ariel, do you think yours is Imperial Delight (see link above)? I'm curious as to how sturdy it is.

Marcia

This is the one I bought a few months ago...not thornless...but lovely, none-the-less.
*notice the leaf color.

My neighbor has that lavender and white one with the variegated leaves and it is gorgeous.

I have the regular magenta colored ones that I planted on the alley side of my backyard fence. I've trained them so that each of them has 2 or 3 stems with all of the lateral growth along the top of the fence-line. I planted them specifically because of their thorns, knowing that nobody would ever climb over that fence to get into my yard.

Manature,
That looks like mine. Though I can't be 100% sure. I tried going in the garden to make sure but it lost all its leaves and flowers in the the freeze we had a few weeks ago.
I got mine from Lowes on the clearance rack last year. It has been trained as a standard and they used a metal pole to keep it sturdy.

Ariel

Marcia,

I heard that the reason for planting in the pot with the bottom cut out is that they bloom much better with their roots restricted. Their native habitat, as I understand, is rocky outcrops in the islands.

As a suggestion, I have a real small one restricted in a clay pot and hanging on a white fence. It blooms frequently and looks like an Asian painting when it does.

(I've got to get a camera!)

I have 4 I trained as trees (I know I need to get a life), 2 I think are the imperial delight in my front berm on either side of the pudica plumeria. They are lovely in bloom, but do require work. If they get too top heavy they break or fall over. I just moved the other two to a new bed, I wasn't sure they would make since they were over 5ft tall and I didn't get much root when I moved them. But they are leafing out now. ;o)

Thanks for all the input, guys!

Lellie, that pic is beautiful, and looks a lot like the Imperial Delight. But are the leaves in the FRONT the foliage, or the ones in the back? The front ones look like pepperomia or something, yet they do seem to be growing on the stem of the plant. I'm surprised at the unexpected coloring.

Katkin, you amaze me with your standards (your plant TREES, not your actual ethical STANDARDS, of course...though those might be amazing, too!) ;o) That was the thing I was most impressed with in your garden...your fantastic increase in bed space that you gained by making so many plants into standards, and underplanting them with other good stuff. So clever! And you are GOOD at it, too. I think this spring, I might try a bit of it, myself.

Thonotorose, I'd like to try some more in hanging baskets, myself, even though I killed the one I bought last year. I think I was probably way too good for it, and I also think I handled the roots too roughly when I transplanted it.

Thanks again, everyone. I can't wait to pick up a couple of these new and beautiful varieties.

Marcia