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Tropical Plants - Australia

Bougainvillea loosing leaves

greenfinger1234

11 years ago

I have never taken much notice of my potted Bougs before as they mostly flowered all year, and pruned them whenever.

This year I was going to give them a good pruning before winter as for some reason they weren't flowering as well as they use to.

Well, they began to flower, I guess the threat of pruning them must have scared them into flowering.

One of the bougs, a normal run-of-the-mill white boug began flowering, then a month later the leaves began to yellow, and now they have all dropped off like it is a deciduous plant, but the flowers are still there, and I can now see new growth beginning.

We have had very wet years and lately very wet.

I had a look at the other bougs today, and I notice their leaves are beginning to turn yellow, and are still flowering.

Any thoughts?

Regards

On

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Comments (4)

tropicbreezent
11 years ago
You could check to see whether the roots have blocked up the drainage holes and left the plants too wet. Generally they're 'cast iron plants' and difficult to kill.
alisonoz_gw
11 years ago
We did have a lot more rain than plants have been used to, I suspect it is more that, and possibly they got water-logged and the roots are struggling a bit to breathe. As tropicbreezent suggests I'd check the drainage holes, esp for any signs of soil coming out which might indicate that worms have invaded looking for dryer ground, nothing surer to ruin pot drainage than a couple of fat worms.
The rather cold early start might have been a shock to their systems too. If you see new growth that's good, I'd be inclined to sacrifice the flowers for the sake of saving strength and tip prune them but not fertilize them until the end of winter or beginning of spring. Some extra minerals might be needed to counter-act any leaching of nutrients over the wetter times to green them up a bit but not too much as they are better starved a bit to help flowering.
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SamWright
11 years ago
Thanks to this topic. I have been searching for answers how to take care and maintain bougainvillea as it is my first time to plant them. I will apply the tips I've read here :)
funnelweb
10 years ago
If you've got a wheel barrow with a pneumatic (pump-up) wheel, be wary you don't run over those devilish bougainvillea thorns; I've never known anything, not even rose off-cuts, that'll puncture a tyre quicker.
Just a handy tip!

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