GARDEN FANATIC: A showy, easy-growing flower

“You won’t go to heaven, if you don’t clean up the bougainvillea flowers first,” my grandmother must have lectured me at least a thousand times while I was growing up in Laguna. However, I wasn’t old enough to realize that it wasn’t her gentle Buddhist belief of heaven she was quoting. Oba-chan was merely repeating the edicts of the fundamentalist minister who was our neighbor.

No plant is more characteristic of Laguna than the ubiquitous bougainvillea.

The bougainvillea is native to Brazil and named for Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a French navigator. The flowers are small and hardly visible. The color comes from the large, showy bracts.

Colors range from purplish to crimson in the cultivars Barbara Karst and San Diego Red, to deep bronze and gold and salmon in the cultivars Afterglow, Orange King and California Gold (Catharine’s favorite).

They grow and bloom best in full sun and in soil that is well drained. Windy locations should be avoided. Minimum water after the plant is established produces maximum flowering and minimum leaf growth. Applications of a general-purpose fertilizer should be applied from late spring through summer.

Most plants are rampant growers and require plenty of space and/or frequent pruning. A few cultivars such as Temple Fire and Raspberry Ice are compact and make excellent ground covers or can be planted to cascade over garden walls.

Bougainvillea may be grown on trellises, roofs or walls. They may also be trained to form hedges or clipped for formality. Many gardeners have used them extensively as potted plants, and they are even trained to make small street trees in South America.

Transplanting bougainvilleas must be undertaken with the utmost care. Root balls are easily broken because the plant doesn’t form a firm root ball in a container. Prior to setting the container in a hole, cut out the bottom. Then slice the container from top to bottom and remove the sides.

I missed out on more beach days, baseball at Bluebird Park and midday movies, because of my failure to finish sweeping up the bougainvillea bracts to my grandmother’s satisfaction. But even though I approached my task, as described by our neighborly minister, “in a rather earthy manner,” I knew that at dinner, my grandmother’s heavenly Japanese cooking would reward my work. See you next time.

STEVE KAWARATANI is happily married to award winning writer Catharine Cooper, and has two cats and five dogs. He can be reached at (949) 497-8168, or e-mail to [email protected].