Training Bougainvillea Bonsai Tree Branches

Training Bougainvillea Tree Branches
Most of the people associate pruning with altering the structure of your bougainvillea bonsai tree to fit a different shape or style. However, this is not the case. Changing the structure of the tree is known as “Bonsai Tree Training”. This is a much better way to develop an alternate form for your tree. Pruning should be used to prevent diseases, prevent lopsidedness, and encourage healthier bonsai tree.

By means of tying down branches or propping them up from the ground, one can direct the growth of the bougainvillea tree to take whatever shape they want. This process is usually used in the early days of the tree to encourage it to develop fully. If you direct the tree and get it started off on the right foot, you’ll save yourself a lot of pruning time later.

Pruning is also used to maintain the proper shape for the bonsai tree. For example, if you have an abundance of branches on one particular side of the tree, then you will use pruning to get rid of the larger segments which weigh down the bonsai to one side. Think about it more in terms of maintaining rather than altering. While pruning is useful sometimes, but most of the time you can benefit from training your branches and grow a healthier and more efficient bonsai tree.




Usually, training occurs during the summer. Rather than just cut off all the branches that aren’t going in the right way, you try to redirect them. The mechanisms you use can be thought of as orthodontic braces for your flower tree. They pull or push the branches, like teeth, in whatever direction you want them to go. At the end of the day, they casually grow the way you want them to be.

It can be hard to decide how exactly to train and shape your tree. There are many different bonsai style and shapes to choose from. Some of the popular ones are formal upright bonsai style(chokkan), informal upright bonsai style(moyogi), slanting bonsai style(shakan), cascade bonsai style(kengai) and broom bonsai style(hokidachi). These bonsai styles are free to own imaginativeness and perception. The style really depends on your personal taste and originality.

To train a bougainvillea bonsai tree, you will need some sort of tools to push or pull a branch. Sometimes bougainvillea bonsai branches grows too close together and push each other out, so training them to grow apart from each other can prevent the need to prune them later. Most of the common tools you need are copper wires of different gauges, concave cutters, shears, bonsai turn table, and trunk benders. Alternately, if you want to keep two branches apart then you can use something like wooden wedge. Also, another alternative way of pulling a branch down is by using weights. There are many creative ways to train a bonsai branch. Successfully training your bonsai branches just takes a little ingenuity in deciding what to wrap things to and what to keep them apart.

Bougainvillea Flower

True Bougainvillea Flower

Bougainvillea Flower
Bougainvillea flower is often mistaken by many to be those colorful bracts. Those tiny trumpet-shaped, white or sometimes yellow-white are the true flowers of a bougainvillea plant. Those colorful bracts that surrounds those tiny flowers are the specialized leaves. Bracts are oftentimes different from foliage leaves and play a big role of inviting pollinators. Each array of bougainvillea flower are usually surrounded by three to six bracts. Bougainvillea flowers can also be used as dye.



Bougainvillea plant is a breed of thorny ornamental shrublike vines. The original bougainvillea plant is a native of South America from Brazil. The shrublike vine specie grow from 3 to 40 ft. in height. Bougainvillea plants are known to be ornamental plants and are popular in places with warm climates. The bracts has a variety of color among these are pink, red, orange, magenta, purple, white or yellow. Bougainvillea plants are rather pest-free but may also be affected with aphids and snails.

Bougainvillea Plant


Bougainvillea Plant

Bougainvillea Plant Care

Bougainvillea plant is one of the classiest vines you can grow.Bougainvillea plant are tough woody shrublike vines that climb up vigorously and grows numerous colorful flowers. Although bougainvillea plant is tropical it can also be grown in cold areas. Bougainvillea flower is very attractive yet exceptionally unusual.The colorful array that we usually notice are not actually the bougainvillea flower but the papery bracts that surrounds their tiny white or sometimes a yellow-white waxy flowers.



Bougainvillea plant should be planted in areas with lot of sunlight. Full sunlight is necessary for them to bloom. Sufficient watering is needed and keep the soil moist. Too much water may kill your bougainvillea plant for their roots are so sensitive and rot easily in soaking wet soil. Although bougainvillea plant is usually used in landscaping it is also a great flowering bonsai material. This bougainvillea shohin bonsai stands about 10 inches and is the upper part of this bougainvillea shohin bonsai propagation. I left this bougainvillea plant undisturbed for a year and use the technique called root escape method. This technique enables this bougainvillea plant to grow much faster. I'm already satisfied with the height and the trunk girth and I will be focusing now on ramification. I will be pruning this bougainvillea plant more often to encourage branching. You might want to see this bougainvillea progression pictures here.


An Update of My Bougainvillea Bonsai

These are two of the bougainvillea bonsais that I am working with. They both come from a large wood cutting.
Bougainvillea Bonsai - Multiple Trunk
March 2012

Bougainvillea Bonsai - Root Escape Method

Bogainvillea Bonsai - Informal Upright
This is just one of my bougainvilleas that needs pruning and an update of my bougainvillea bonsai clip and grow method. To acquire faster growth on the branch girth, I used a method called escape root method. This method is simply allowing the roots to escape the pot and find its way on the ground.