Bougainvillea Beauty!!

I have NO IDEA how long I've had this particular bougainvillea plant, but I remember bringing it back in my car on one of my trips to St. Simon's Island, Georgia. It's been a love/hate relationship, because, when I first brought it home and transplanted it (into the pot in which it currently resides), it did REALLY well.

It was on my deck, in full sun, and had GORGEOUS fuchsia blooms every summer. Then, I moved to Minnesota, and kept it on my shaded deck in the summer, and inside my "northern exposed" apartment during the winter...which was, apparently, not even CLOSE to being enough sunlight to produce flowers. So...it HASN'T bloomed in about EIGHT years (except for a weird little "growth spurt" just before I moved, in which it started producing a few flowers again...).

I thought I might throw it in the dumpster, or pull it up and cut back the roots, to see if I could get it to bloom as profusely as it did before, but, never got around to it (plus it has thorns, and they REALLY hurt if you get stuck!!).

Apparently, sunlight IS the trick. Since moving to the new place, and keeping it on the SUNNY deck in the summer, and in a SUNNY "southern exposed" window during the winter...it's doing QUITE nicely.

I REALIZE that many of you might be saying WHO CARES??!! HOW LAME!!! ...but in Minnesota, where it FREQUENTLY gets below freezing (WAY below freezing!!!) through MARCH, and, where we just got ANOTHER four inches of snow last night, and where spring is AT LEAST five months away, a little "blooming" goes a REALLY, REALLY long way!!!!!!




Hope YOUR day had some "springy" color in it too!!!!