Last spring I bought a nicely shaped Bougie 'Double Delight'. This was the plant last summer.

It suffered with the cold this past winter and I thought I had lost it but it came back from the roots. There are a half dozen good sized shoots but the leaves are tremendous, some are 6", nothing like the dainty leaves on the plant pictured above. I actually thought it might have been grafted on to a different rootstock but I have looked carefully and there is no sign of a graft. I fertilized it with Espoma Flower Tone earlier this spring same as I did last year when it performed perfectly. I have several other bougies and noticed no difference in their growth this year.

What would make a bougie do such a weird thing?

Can you show us a photo of the plant as it is now?

Sure, nothing out of the ordinary, just the huge leaves. I have not yet cut back the old stems as there was still a bit of life in them. As I mentioned several are easily 6".

I was looking around the internet today and apparently some people do graft them, but I don't think it's common at all. Yours probably isn't if you can't find a graft.

I've never seen this before, but maybe your plant really loved that plant food! I was told that over watering them and over feeding them would result in lush leaves and no bracts. Unless someone else has an idea, I'd just wait and see how it performs for the rest of the summer.

I started using the Flower Tone fertilizer last year after reading about growing bougies and the grower said you cannot use too much. That said, I generally follow the directions on the bag and used the same amount on my other bougies and they did not do this crazy leaf thing. I know in Florida, the ones in the ground bloom better during drought so I have been limited water to them. Spring here was very late this year and we had an unusually harsh winter. These plants had been outside in a protected spot but it was still colder than normal. My other bougies are just now beginning to think about flowering.

I was always told not to water until the leaf tips droop a bit, but I've done that, and I've done once a week drip watering on our Arizona plants, and it all works. I'll be interested to see how that plant with the huge leaves does the rest of the summer.

Me too, I'll keep you posted.