It took almost eighteen years for our kinda pink, kinda magenta, yet (almost) always sunny Bougainvillea to grow from a small plant till it covered an area of approximately nine square meters.
I guess growing a bougainvillea flower (called bracts) is a matter of faith, although it is a drought-tolerant vine. For at least five or seven years after plating it, the bougainvillea was just a brown stick with leaves. But we hoped, forgotten about it, then hoped some more.
Until the first flowers bloomed. Each year more, its branches stretching over the fence, towards the sky, lavishly, luminous pink when they open, then turning magenta and fiery red as they mature.
And these days in our yard it even kinda snows with pink bougainvillea flowers 🙂
Bougainvillea originate from tropical South and Central America (native of coastal Brazil), where they are called paper flowers. And the famous purple Jacaranda trees Pretoria is famous for also originate from South America.
The bougainvillea was first noticed in 1768 in Rio de Janeiro by French naturalist Dr. Philibert Commercon. He named it thus after his good friend and ship’s admiral Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who commanded the ship La Boudeuse that sailed around the world from 1766 to 1769.
But only in early 19th century did bougainvillea landed in Europe, and from there it sailed to Australia and South Africa.
Did you know that color pink is named after a flower of the same name? A tiny flower with five, fringed petals.
Kinda Pink and Sunny Bougainvillea, is a contribution to Becky’s incredible October Squares #KindaSquare blog feature. Do have a look 🙂
Look at all those blooms! So pretty.:-)
Hi Pat, Very interesting and new to me information about bougainvillea plants. I was curious about the “pink” and “red” links you share. Your photos and the links remind me how we can never truly duplicate the beautiful colours in nature.
Thank you, Erika.
You are right, nature is one of a kind.
Sorry for the late reply, had (again) three messages stuck in spam folder.
Aren’t they? 🙂
Effortlessly.
WP is still not allowing me to leave comments via website, so thought I’d try reader this morning. This is such a gorgeous square, and I learnt so much about this plan this morning. Thank you 😀
I wonder why. I hope it has nothing to do with the plugins I updated last..
Ah, really pleased with receiving such accolades from you today, Becky. Thank you 🙂
Hi Pat, I left a couple of comments on your beautiful post yesterday using Safari and Google Chrome and comments disappear? Checking back and I read Becky’s above comment. Sometimes WP glitches? or spam folder? Very interesting and new to me information about bougainvillea plants. I was curious about the “pink” and “red” links. Your photos and the links remind me how we can never truly duplicate the beautiful colours in nature.
Thank you for returning to pull my sleeve, Erica. 🙂 You are a treasure. Forgot to check the spam folder again.
We bought this bougainvillea while our teen daughter was still pushed around in a pram. This month we took her prom photos in front of it. 🙂
All good, Pat. This has happened to me a few times and I greatly appreciate when a blogger friend points it out. Did you happen to post photos of your daughter and prom photos? Wow, prom….always a milestone
Oh, I do appreciate it 🙂
No, no family pictures 🙂 And, yes, an immense milestone. Glad we’re over it 🙂
One of my favorite flowers, I had no idea it took so long to get established! Unfortunately, we can’t from them here, I have to travel south to enjoy them. Thank you!
Ah, Suzanne, glad to see you here 🙂
I am sure you appreciate these flowers with an artist’s eye 🙂
You know how they say, the grass is always greener. Well, I do miss autumn’s reflection in the leaves. Can admire but a handful around here.
Happy sketching to you 🙂
Full bloom indeed
and flower seed!
Yes! Thank you 🙂