How To Grow Bougainvillea On A Wall?

Just picture it – your beautiful house, with a waterfall of brightly colored blooms trailing down the wall. Gorgeous, isn’t it? Let’s make the dream a reality, and learn how to grow Bougainvillea on a wall.

How To Train A Bougainvillea To Climb

The best way to train your Bougainvillea to climb is to start it young, so that it can be trained to climb from a young age.

1. Start by placing a stake into the ground about 6 inches from the main trunk, and tie the main trunk to this stake. Don’t tie it too tightly!
2. Trim off any new shoots that appear that are not growing in the direction you want them to, using a pair of pruning shear.
3. When the top of the Bougainvillea reaches the top of the stake, trim it down so that it will spread out rather than shoot up.
4. A good way to train a Bougainvillea to climb is by using a trellis – this means that you can twine the young shoots to grow up the support.
5. Clip off the dead flowers and leaves as your Bougainvillea grows; this will keep it healthy and growing in the right direction.

Will Bougainvillea Grow Up A Wall?

Bougainvillea is a fantastic climbing plant, and one that can easily be trained so that it covers the entire of your house with gorgeous blooms!

What you need:

• A wall that receives 6-8 hours of sunlight every day
• Wire fence paneling
• Pots and compost, or a good base bed for your Bougainvillea
• Bougainvillea like acidic, free draining soil, and won’t tolerate being waterlogged, so go for the driest area of your garden.

What you do:

1. Attach the wire fence paneling against your chosen wall.
2. You can use stakes and wire, if you have no space to add a wire fence paneling -anything that your Bougainvillea can climb up is good
3. Take an established Bougainvillea cutting and place it into your prepared bed.
4. Gently pull the growing stem of the Bougainvillea towards the wire paneling, and start to weave it in.
5. You should not stretch the plants too much, and if they are not long enough to reach the paneling yet then leave them till they are a little taller.
6. Weave the stem in, one or two rungs up to start with, and then leave it to slowly grow and climb by itself.
7. Water your plants well after the transplanting and weaving, to give them a bit of a boost.
8. As your Bougainvillea grow bigger, weave the longer stems into the wire paneling.
9. Before long, your Bougainvillea will have started to climb by themselves – at this point your work is done, and you only need do a little maintenance here and there.
10. Keep an eye on the new shoots, and remember to train the new growth to follow the way you want them to go.

This video (despite the monotone direction!) contains lots of advice on how to grow your Bougainvillea up against a wall:

Can You Topiary Bougainvillea?

Unlike many other plants, Bougainvillea won’t tolerate being pruned into too-harsh shapes, or kept too confined.

It is a climbing, trailing creeper, that is at its best when it allowed to wander where it wants to. If it is taking over your garden, you may not agree with this!

That being said, Bougainvillea are quite forgiving, and they can be trained to go where you want them to without too much stress on their future growth – they will quickly adapt to being trained.

If your Bougainvillea is getting a little too excitable, a trim here and there will not do it any harm. In fact, this can help it to grow back better and stronger in the future!

You can trim and prune it into a rough shape, and have it as a little tree or a fence covering, but Bougainvillea is a free spirit and doesn’t like to be tamed!

Which Type Of Bougainvillea Is Best At Climbing

As with most plants, there are many different types of Bougainvillea, and there are some that are more suited to climbing than others.

• Bougainvillea Barbara Karst (Miss Manila). This one is prefect for climbing up trellises and for creating a beautiful fence covering, as it is an excellent creeper.
• Purple Queen. This Bougainvillea is ideal for those gardeners who have limited space, but who want good climbing coverage.
• Camarillo Fiesta. This type of Bougainvillea is a big, beautiful climber, perfectly suited to larger gardens as it can climb up to 30 feet tall!

These are some of the more famed climbing Bougainvillea, however, due to the nature of this plant you can make most of them climb and creep in the direction you want them to.

This, although it is a general article on climbing plants, can help you learn how to best care for your climbing Bougainvillea.

How To Grow Bougainvillea Fast

The best way to get super speedy growth from your Bougainvillea is to give it the conditions it likes the best.

Direct sunlight, at least 6 hours a day, will be the best thing to get your Bougainvillea performing as you want it to. The less sun it gets, the slower it will grow.

Bougainvillea like a well draining soil, and won’t tolerate sitting around in puddles. They are an arid-loving plant, so keeping them in the dry side will help them to thrive.

These plants prefer an acidic soil. They will grow in alkaline soil, but they won’t be as happy, and they won’t reward you with fast growth.

Pruning your Bougainvillea, although this may seem like a backwards step, can actually help to increase speedy growth. Remove the old, dead bracts and spent wood, and you can enjoy some swift new growth.

Try to avoid over fertilizing your Bougainvillea. Although you might think that giving nutrients will increase growth, too much feed can actually hamper your Bougainvillea.