Got my first bougainvillea! And it the same as the one that you have Xeramtheum, I like the leaf variegation..so in case I do not get good flowering, at least the leaves have some cool variegation. I will do my repotting tomorrow and this coming week..as I got other plants...ah...nursery visits...I end up getting a lot to haul back home.

That's terrific! WTG!

I have this Carolina Wren that has been trying to make a nest in the Raspberry Ice Bougainvillea in the greenhouse for years now .. for the last 4 years I've been removing her nest making attempts from Spring til mid-Summer and last year put a plastic folgers coffee canister in the 'sweet' spot to discourage her and it seemed to work. The problem was that she'd dig a hole then make her nest so when I watered the plant the nest and everything in it would get wet. So this year when she started up again I put the coffee canister and that was that.

This morning when I was photographing my Radermachera which is right next to the greenhouse door she started fussing at me big time. Knowing her routine I looked behind the Raspberry Ice and sure enough .. she'd made a nest in the coffee canister. I'll let it go this time since the wet nest problem won't be a problem but she's going to have to get used to me and my helpers going in and out. Next year I'll put the lid on the canister.

Oh my! I've had a hummingbird flying into my GH here lately, but I don't think there's any nest building going on.....at least I hope not! Not much in there now, so I'm not sure what's attracting the little rascal.

Finally repotted my bougainvillea, bearing in mind what the nursery man said not to spread the roots, just let it be..so okay!
Good timing as we still have a couple of days of good weather, starting Friday our temps will go soaring..high and drier 100F++..ugh..bye bye nice spring-like weather Hopefully the plant can acclimate fast.

Looks great! I keep mine on the dry side but then again, it's in the greenhouse

A very handsome plant!

Oh, I'm jealous! That's lovely!

Oh don't be jealous yet woofie..we'll see if I can grow this nicely first

I think it will love the heat and they bloom more when they are dry and root bound.

I hope so too! ..thanks Jonna

Happy to see my bougainvillea has finally acclimated For awhile it was pouting in my garden adjusting from its nursery location. It has quickly dropped the few colorful bracts and the leaves were curling up. Then the heat wave came..so just kept on watering it so it can try to adjust and establish.

Seeing the new leaves was such a relief!

WTG! At least you don't have Carolina Wrens digging out holes in the dirt making nests.

The city trees offers good distraction for the birds..well except for the hummies which frequent my garden

Yay! It does love heat, the hotter the better as long as it gets water.

Now let's see when it will make those lovely colorful bracts

They seem to bloom when they get a little bit water deprived, I think it is a survival thing. In your weather, once they are established I'd try and let them dry out completely for a day before watering and see if that stimulates them. Also I think the nurseries use some kind of bloom boost, I never see plants in the garden blooming so profusely on really small plants.

Just an update of my Bougainvillea 'Raspberry Ice'. It survived being tossed out by strong winds during late fall and also winter outdoors, dropped a lot of its leaves, but come March 2014, it started to grow new ones:



Have trimmed off some of the branches then, and our weather has just been hot and super dry. The original container was broken during the toss out, luckily I have another container of same size, so I can just put old container and all into the new one, so no root disturbance.

And photo taken on 18July2014: Lots and lots of leaves...am still waiting if it will try to make some of the bracts..so just enjoying the leaf variegations. One thing for sure, it does like the heat very much.

I wonder if the duration of the direct sunlight that is hampering the formation of the bracts as well. It gets into part shade in the early morning, direct sunlight from about 10 am to 1 pm, then shade again the rest of the day.

My Raspberry Ice usually blooms in Winter.

I hope mine tries to bloom this Fall if it can...it just goes deciduous in winter over here, since I leave it outdoors.