Article Date: January 27th, 2010
Living in South Florida, I have the opportunity to see bougainvillea of every color, shape, and form imaginable. In the ritzier neighborhoods, I see bougainvillea climbing up 30 foot entry gates of multimillion dollar homes. In the more industrial areas of town, I’ve seen them used to cover a chain link fence around the back perimeter of an auto-wrecking shop. While both beautiful in their own right, I have a feeling one is used for show while the other for deterring trespassers.
Bougainvillea Graces an Entryway
A lot of people complain about the thorns, but you wouldn’t believe how many people actually use bougainvillea to keep people out – or in! I actually had a call from a designer whose client had trouble keeping her teenage daughter from sneaking out of the house through her bedroom window. The solution was to plant bougainvillea right outside her window. On the flip side, I have a neighbor with a one-story home who wants to plant bougainvillea beneath every window to deter burglars.
Then there’s the story of a manager of an auto dealership who called me to order the tallest bougainvillea trellis available. He wanted the bright color to attract customers into his dealership and also keep out vandals who where climbing up the side of his multi-level parking lot and vandalizing his cars.
I love it when bougainvillea can perform double-duty. In addition, bougainvillea attracts butterflies, aids to prevent soil erosion, and doesn’t require much water. It’s a great multi-tasker!
Double-Duty: Bougainvillea Beautifies AND Keeps Trespassers Out
Posted in BGI Articles, Bougainvillea Ideas, Landscaping | No Comments »
Article Date: October 22nd, 2009
This past Monday, 30,000 bougainvillea were handed out to residents of Hongya county of southwest China’s Sichuan province. The aim of this massive bougainvillea give-away was to build a “beautiful tourist city”.
Bougainvillea adorns the balcony of a Chinese home
A notice issued by the county government said that local state employees were required (Required!! Welcome to communist China!) to plant at least two bougainvilleas on their balconies or courtyards, otherwise they would be publicly reprimanded.
As you can imagine, the notice triggered a heated debate by residents who feel it is their own choice what flowers to plant on their balconies. Personally, I think it’s a fantastic idea for any government to give away bougainvillea for beautification projects. I can’t think of a better plant that is as colorful and requires so minimal water. Okay, so I’m a bit biased. I haven’t been to China, but I have visited Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand, and give big kudos to their governments for planting bougainvillea EVERYWHERE…along highway medians, up lamp posts, airport parking garages, even along sidewalks. Every city park and garden had bougainvillea, and you couldn’t go two blocks without seeing one. Southeast Asia is definitely a bougainvillea lover’s paradise, but I could do without the reprimanding.
Read the full article here: Planting Flowers Required in SW China.
Tags: beautification project, China, government, tourism
Posted in BGI Articles, Horticulture Happenings, Travel | No Comments »
Article Date: October 21st, 2009
Bougainvillea petals sprinkled on a wedding table
I found a new use for my food dehydrator, and it involves bougainvillea – of course. In addition to making delicious dried bananas, fruit leather, and apple rings, I learned that I can also use it to dry bougainvillea bracts to produce beautiful dried “petals”.
I’ve dried bougainvillea bracts before using a slotted tray that I found lying around in the propagation house, but it took 4 to 7 days for the bracts to completely dry – longer when it was humid. I had to constantly stir up the bracts to ensure even drying. I experimented with speeding up the drying time by placing the tray outside in the sun, but the sunlight made the colors fade. Plus, every gust of wind had me scrambling across the nursery picking up my precious petals.
Light as air bougainvillea confetti
So the tray went back inside my office, but with a fan directed at the tray. The problem with the fan is that as the bracts dry, they become lighter and lighter, and by the third day, the fan was blowing them out of the tray. Again, I’m scrambling around on the floor, picking up wayward petals. (But notice how beautifully they fall to the ground!)
I wasn’t interested in pressing the bracts because I loved the look of them a little crinkly and natural-looking. I looked into a freeze dryer for about a second, until I found out that they cost thousands of dollars. My last resort was using inexpensive silicone crystals to dry my bougainvillea bracts. After a week of them buried under these crystals in an air-tight container, they seemed to do the trick. The problem was fishing these bracts out of the crystals. Silicone crystals create a lot of dust, so sifting them out was a messy job,and the bracts had to be cleaned of all the dust. Another bust.
Fun, flirty bougainvillea petals
So imagine my delight reading through the manual of my new food dehydrator, and up pops a section about drying flowers – in hours, not days! Looks like we’re going to have a new item in our online shop very soon. Got a wedding coming up needing natural confetti, or table-top decorations? Email me and I’ll get a fresh batch made up.
Tags: bracts, crafts, hobby, petals, wedding
Posted in BGI Articles, Bougainvillea Ideas | 2 Comments »
