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Did I just kill my bougainvillea?

18 years ago

I just bought a bougainvillea in a pot of about 8". I went online to find out what kind of soil it prefers and proceeded to pot it into a 16" hanging basket. But I root pruned it before putting it into the new basket! I've root pruned everything other plant I've ever had before putting them into hanging baskets (sometimes just so that they'll fit better) but I did not know that boug's do not like their roots messed with until it was too late. I saw that it was quite pot-bound when I took it out of the plastic container it came in so I took off about the lower 1" of roots. Did I kill it...I feel horrible! Thanks in advance.

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Comments (2)

njoynit
18 years ago
I grow mine in a hanging basket.I grow mine in wire basket with cocoa liner.so it actually gets 'air pruned'meaning its roots are pruned by being exposed to air.I have not trimed their roots when planting.I added a variegated one this year from a 8 inch pot.I had moved it up to a qt pot for 2 months before planting in hanging basket.I DO understand your meaning of the roots and space.I spread them out when I plant& was a time adjusting it level wise.
I think your plant may be fine as long as still had plenty of roots to support the size of the plants current size.Mine bloom from late may-june all the till bout January.I stop watering when last buds have opened to let it go dormant.My one is just wakeing up again now.
gardeniarose
Original Author
17 years ago
njoynit,
I just found your reply today! I didn't have that little box checked off for email notification. Well, in the end, my plant DID do OK. It is growing nicely and has just finished another bloom cycle. I guess I didn't kill it after all! Thank you for your reply.
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So are you saying this boug I have will definitely shed its leaves and go into dormancy? Aww. I'm so spoiled by my tropicals-esp my jasmines that bloom for me all year through. But if it keeps coming back- I'll give it a try. So I take it then that the dormancy is not 'required' as such but it's just what it naturally does when its winter here? Toni, it's not a bonsai. I have it hanging at the moment by a nice sunny window. I'm not sure how cool the window gets in the winter- I can't remember now but generally my entire apt is very very warm in the winters and there's no way I can provide the boug a 'cool' spot as such. I'm having problems with my clivia for the same reasons. But thanks so much all of you for all your advice. I'm so glad I learned about the watering because if you guys hadn't mentioned that to me, I'd be merrily watering it like my tropicals.
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