So the crazy bougainvillea has bloomed again. The small white flowers are the actual flowers, and the bright pink surrounding them are bracts. The bracts are very papery and can be kept as dried flowers.
It is a straggly plant that I prune after it has bloomed, but still it manages to stretch out. I will cut it this year where the leaves end before the bare stem. It is shooting a bit at the top of the curve so perhaps it will want to grow up there.
With our northern climate, it drops most of its leaves in the fall and only grows some back in February. During the winter, I keep it quite dry but now that it is in full growth I have to water it every few days. I also gave it some balanced fertilizer when it started to leaf out again. It is a bit of a peculiar houseplant but the bright pink bracts are so welcome at this time of year that I am really happy that I have it.
Hope all is well.
It's certainly a strange-looking plant but very colourful.
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