PlantFiles: Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea brasiliensis 'Raspberry Ice'

I adore this bougainvillea. The color combination is vivid and startling. It makes a wonderful container grown plant here in Ohio. I overwinter it down in my basement with 160 watts of fluorescents. Temps are in the low 60's. I water very lightly. The photo I have posted is the March 8th bloom.

"Raspberry Ice", to me, is a stunner. :)

I just purchased two of these plants and put them in the ground yesterday. While I was familiar with bougainvillea, I had never seen the variegated variety before but once I saw it at my favorite garden center, I knew this was what I had been searching for to put in the corner by the fountain. I am hoping they will thrive as I have been told they would here. My only complaint is that although I was fully aware of the thorns (have bougainvillea in hanging pots every year), I never had the pleasure of tying one to a trellis...needless to say, I have multiple scratches and more than a few splinters! What I can't figure out is why they are all so sore (feels like cat scratches...swelling and red). Either I have an allergy to them or they contain something that causes this effect as a matter of course?

Zone 8b, Lake Sam Rayburn, Southeast, TX

I have Bougainvillea "Rasberry Ice" in 5 gal. pot. Left it outside during winter of 2006. Also, I have "Orange King"

Its March 25, 2oo7 and no new gowth is visiable. May have lost both beautiful plants to 20 deg. weather during winter of 2006.

Just learned today that they are very frost tender. duh!!

I have had mine for about six years now. I started it as a cutting which I made in Key West. It has taken a good three years for the plant to get accustomed to the moisture in my area vs the dryness of Key West. Since the hurricanes of "04" I have had to stake all my bougainvillea with metal tubing. This variety with it's multi colored foliage and rich majenta color is very showy. The plant can easily be trained to grow as you want it to grow. In early spring new branches can be tied and trained to grow straight up. If you want a taller bush, or you can just leave them alone, then they will bend over to form a more bushy plant. Mine is almost eight feet tall. I often find butterflies resting in the shade on it's branches.
Art

I have done much better with this Bougainvillea planted in ground rather than potted. The first couple of years we cut it back to ground level and mulched heavily over the roots for winter. Now we cut it back by about 50% each winter and still mulch the roots heavily. We are training it as a climber against the fence but because it branches and blooms so profusely, several branches still grow forward and arch toward the ground or the bed in front of it. Bracts are a beautiful electric fushia color. Thorns are fairly sparcely spaced but the are large and quite sharp! Soil pH is about 6.5 and bed is slightly raised. About half of the plant is in sun and the other half in part shade. At full size each year it is about 10 feet tall and spreads about 15 feet. The half in full sun begins to bloom earlier but the semi shade side catches up and blooms equally as well.

Bougainvilleas are very frost-tender, even here in zone 9 coastal Nor. Cal. (grow them in sheltered, south wall, sunny locations), but when established there is nothing more spectacular in full bloom. Also known as "Hawaii", despite the name it is one of the hardiest species. New leaves tinged red. Good hanging basket plant, nice sub-shrub. Plant away from paths, thorns are wicked on bougainvilleas -- in S. America they use them in place of barbed wire fences! Respond well to pruning as they bloom on new wood.