My bougainvillea doesn't have many leaves, it looked kinda pitiful all year and I thought it was b/c it needed to be repotted and moved to a sunnier location. Well I did that middle of the summer and it still looks pitiful (even used the good miracle grow soil and fertilized it about a month later). It's really leggy, on a 6 ft long limb it will only have leaves on the last foot or two. It also didn't really bloom in the fall. It's the dark pink variety that isn't supposed to be too finiky but the last couple of years it's really gone downhill.
What should I do? More fertilize in the spring? Cut it way back while it is "cold"? Give up, rip it out and get a new one in the spring?
Bougainvillea doesn't have many leaves
There are a couple things to know about bougies (even the non-finicky sort). They won't bloom well if you water them too much, they can get by fine in poor soil, and they can be tricky to transplant (or repot) because their roots are very easily damaged. My guess is that some of the roots could have been damaged during repotting, so the plant will take a while to recover. Then you combine that with more fertilizer than it probably wants and possibly more water than is ideal, and that could explain why you're having problems. The leggy growth is probably from too much fertilizer, and the lack of blooms could be either too much high nitrogen fertilizer or too much water (or a combination). If the plant is outdoors now, I wouldn't trim it back until the spring, otherwise you could stimulate new growth that'll get damaged by the cold. But if you cut it back in the spring and watch the water and fertilizer it'll probably recover for you just fine.
I knew about the watering and I only water it when the leaves first start to get droopy. I'll skip the fertilize in the spring and cut it back after all the cold has passed and hope for the best.
Try giving it a couple of drops of SuperThrive in the next watering. It seems to help transplants of all plant varieties.