Bougainvillea-best way to propagate?

Hello all,

What is the best way to propagate bougainvillea? I am growing 4 indoors this winter under fluorescent lights.

I was going to try a softwood cutting (the wood on the stem is green); soil would be 1/2 perlite, 1/4 potting soil, 1/4 turface; with hormex 30 or 16 root hormone dusted on.

How does that sound?

Thanks,
Maureen

This info on rooting is from Gordon Braswell, who is no longer with us. My personal add on is, larger your cutting is, quicker you get decent size plant. I also use oasis or planting cube in rooting, but, thats me. I also root in potting soil. Larry

Gordon Braswell

Ways for Propagating Bougainvillea
Bougainvillea may be propagated by seed, cutting, laying or tissue culture. It is commonly believed that bougainvillea hybirds are sterile and only the species may be propagated by seed. I am still researching this and will be updating as required

I will only discuss propagating by cutting here. You may root bougainvillea by either "hardwood" "softwood" or "leaf bud" cuttings. If you would like to try rooting in late spring or early summer (or as long as night temps remain 55 degrees or warmer), it is best to use softwood cuttings. If you want to root during fall and winter (when night temps are cooler than above), hardwood cuttings will probably work best.

See Plant Propagation Methods for more information about asexual propagation methods.

Rooting Environment
Commerical growers usually use either mist or fog to root their bougainvillea. For home rooting, a 3 or 4" pot filled with sandy peat covered with something like a plastic sandwich bag and placed in shade should work. Keep the soil moist during the rooting period. Your object is to maintain a very high percent of humidity around the cutting until roots strike. Softwood cutting 'stuck' in May or early June should be rooted by the end of August. Hardwood cuttings will usually take 3 or 4 months.

A plastic bag alone can serve as a propagation environment. Simply place some moist propagation medium in the bottom of the bag, insert the cuttings, and tie the top of the bag closed.

Special tips
For bougainvillea, the tip cutting doesn't work very well. The soft leaves in the tip are subject to various diseases and rot often occurs when using this type cutting. Additionally, once rooted, only 1 stem will grow and pinching will be required to initiate more stem breaks. You may use the tips, but I always discard the tips (throw them away).

For bougainvillea, the sub-terminal cutting has always worked best for me. This type cutting is stronger and will ward off disease problems. Also, new stems will usually grow from each leaf bud and less pinching is required to obtain a nicely branched bougainvillea when using this type cutting.

If you don't have enough stem material to root, you may use a leaf-bud cutting l but you should have better rooting percentages using the sub-terminal cutting .

Pruning and Pinching
By pinching I mean, cutting off a part of the plant stem(s). With bougainvillea, we use the terms "soft" pinch and "hard

Thanks for the info Larry. I am familiar with the great work of Gordon Braswell, but I'm confused by the term "sandy peat ."

I've heard some say that "sand" refers to any type of inorganic soil additive like grit or turface or river sand, is that correct?

Also, any comments on the mixture I proposed above?

Thanks anyone and everyone,

Maureen