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Zone 9b, mid-Gulf coast Florida. I treat it like a specimen tree, though it spreads FAST by seeds. My leaves are purple, very pretty. My first one got to about 6 feet last year pruned as a small tree, foliage spreading about 5 feet. It was not evergreen, but bare branches are interesting. I cut it way back in Feb. and moved it to a place with slightly less direct sun and it's growing more slowly. The wood is soft. I don't want "crotches" that might split off as it grows more top-heavy, and don't want a bush here, so I'm trimming, (not often enough) and it's got a funky zig-zaggy 2" diameter gray trunk with a head at about 4 ft. now, enough to block view of neighbor's driveway but not hide preditors. Plenty of babies to experiment with: pull a baby out of the ground, or set some new growth in glass of water and within 1 week rootlets appear. My soil is poor: compacted-sandy. A neighbor said that s. is buggy but whatever is munching my oleanders and leaving honeydew on my palm trunks doesn't touch this. As for being poisonous, I have no pets or children, wild animals have plenty else to eat, and I wash hands and tools. I wonder if I made a hedge of it around my little pool, if it would keep the racoon from washing and pooping in it? Bougainvillea is SO thorny.
