Bougainvillea Pruning

[LuieAvila]

I'm in Southern California and was gifted this Bougainvillea. I'm not just new to Bonsai, but gardening all together.
I'm not sure when and what to prune. I see what seem to be some dry branches, but don't want to remove anything without really knowing what I'm doing.
Online research has given me some ideas, but nothing that I can say I'm comfortable with. I'm looking for guidance on what and when to prune.

Thanking you all in advanced.

 

[crab apple]

I'm kinda new too but I do think from reading on this forum that it's always good to start by pruning any branches that are coming out of the same place as others, evidently you shouldn't have a bunch of branches all sprouting out of the same spot, trim it back so just one is sprouting out. Also I have learned that everyone's conditions are so different that you just have to experiment and see what happens. On a bougy its probably safe to just trim everything that's long and leggy, If you cut it way back it will back bud, at least mine do.

 

[LuieAvila]

I'm kinda new too but I do think from reading on this forum that it's always good to start by pruning any branches that are coming out of the same place as others, evidently you shouldn't have a bunch of branches all sprouting out of the same spot, trim it back so just one is sprouting out. Also I have learned that everyone's conditions are so different that you just have to experiment and see what happens. On a bougy its probably safe to just trim everything that's long and leggy, If you cut it way back it will back bud, at least mine do.

I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Bonsai Pete]

I'm in Southern California and was gifted this Bougainvillea. I'm not just new to Bonsai, but gardening all together.
I'm not sure when and what to prune. I see what seem to be some dry branches, but don't want to remove anything without really knowing what I'm doing.
Online research has given me some ideas, but nothing that I can say I'm comfortable with. I'm looking for guidance on what and when to prune.

Thanking you all in advanced.

I'm in Southern California and was gifted this Bougainvillea. I'm not just new to Bonsai, but gardening all together.
I'm not sure when and what to prune. I see what seem to be some dry branches, but don't want to remove anything without really knowing what I'm doing.
Online research has given me some ideas, but nothing that I can say I'm comfortable with. I'm looking for guidance on what and when to prune.

Thanking you all in advanced.

 

[Bonsai Pete]

I now live in Florida, but here is a pic of one of my bogey’s I shipped from Huntington Beach,Ca. I trim any time of year and to any preferred shape. You can actually remove all the flowers and leaves after blooming to get real nice compact growth (ramification) and it will help it to get smaller leaf growth. This grew up about 1/2 mile from the beach and the salty air is what I believe made the trunk so knarly.

 

[LuZiKui]

Sort of depends on what your long term goal is with these. But, you can start by trimming off all of the branches where the flowers grow, they look like this:



Those can all be clipped off close to the branch that they emerge from (blue line). I typically wait until the flowers start to wilt and and fall off then I go through and clip all of those off with some sharp scissors or pruners.

This bougainvillea is still pretty small so I'd put it out where it gets the most sunlight possible and let it grow wild. That will help to thicken the trunk. Bougies are vines so they like to send out long branches and those long branches help to thicken the trunk In an ideal world you would plant this in the ground and let it grow basically unchecked for 5-10 years but that isn't always possible.

When you're ready to start pruning it into a bonsai shape you basically have to decide what sort of overall shape you're looking for. As you learn more about bonsai you'll get familiar with some of the different design styles. The nice part about bougies is that they will basically sprout from anywhere. So you don't have to be too nervous about pruning.

What part of SoCal are you in?