“Biba” Bougainvillea Bonsai

[BonsaiOnTheBrainTX]

I’ve been hunting for exotic or rare Bougainvillea cultivars that are hard to get in the US. Once I saw that people sell plants on Etsy, I started seeing all kinds of bougainvillea I’ve never seen before. With multi colored bracts of all different colors. The only problem is they’re all in Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea etc. I finally found a seller that had a few of these interesting varieties state side so ofcourse I jumped on one. This one is just called Biba and has white, pink, and white/pink flowers or bracts. Similar to Imperial Thai Delight, but not quite the same. Anyhow, I’ve had this one 3-4 months so I’m going to post its progress in this thread. If anyone has any helpful tips or tricks or feedback I’d love to hear it.
It was pretty much bare rooted when I received it and no leaves, but I could see it was alive and ready to grow. I don’t have it in bonsai soil yet, but I did prune some inward and crossing branches then let it grow. Just today I started wiring it a bit. I’m not sure though if wiring or clip and grow would be better. I’m leaning toward light wiring but we’ll see…. The first -picture is what the blooms look like. The 2nd is when I received it. The rest are from today. I tried to upload a video but it says the file is too large. :/

Lastly, the start of the branching is kind of high up on the tree IMO, so considering to ground layer it next year. The trunk has some movement but not a ton.

 

[Carol 83]

I’ve been hunting for exotic or rare Bougainvillea cultivars that are hard to get in the US. Once I saw that people sell plants on Etsy, I started seeing all kinds of bougainvillea I’ve never seen before. With multi colored bracts of all different colors. The only problem is they’re all in Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea etc. I finally found a seller that had a few of these interesting varieties state side so ofcourse I jumped on one. This one is just called Biba and has white, pink, and white/pink flowers or bracts. Similar to Imperial Thai Delight, but not quite the same. Anyhow, I’ve had this one 3-4 months so I’m going to post its progress in this thread. If anyone has any helpful tips or tricks or feedback I’d love to hear it.
It was pretty much bare rooted when I received it and no leaves, but I could see it was alive and ready to grow. I don’t have it in bonsai soil yet, but I did prune some inward and crossing branches then let it grow. Just today I started wiring it a bit. I’m not sure though if wiring or clip and grow would be better. I’m leaning toward light wiring but we’ll see…. The first -picture is what the blooms look like. The 2nd is when I received it. The rest are from today. I tried to upload a video but it says the file is too large. :/

Lastly, the start of the branching is kind of high up on the tree IMO, so considering to ground layer it next year. The trunk has some movement but not a ton.

I like the bracts, pretty.

 

[BonsaiOnTheBrainTX]

I like the bracts, pretty.

Hopefully that seller will bring over some more good varieties. Now, just to get this one to bloom atleast once this year

 

[BonsaiOnTheBrainTX]

Quick update on this Boug, it finally started to show off after I moved and it’s been getting full sun for last few weeks. Amazing that’s all it took to get ALL of my bougainvillea blooming. I’m excited to see this one thicken up and grow over the coming years. I’m liking how the branch structure is developing so far. Im sure I’ll be giving it a hard-ish prune in the spring to encourage more back budding/ramification. Let me know what you think…