No leaves on Bougainvillea

This past fall, I planted a Bougainvillea that was about 4 - 5 ft. tall. It had leaves and beautiful purple flowers. During winter it stopped growing leaves and flowers. I was expecting that in spring it would begin to grow again but it has not. I have scratched the upper bark of it and it is dead. I then scratched the lower part of the bark and it is a healthy green, so I know that it is still alive. What can I do to help it grow leaves and flowers again? It is located in an area that has full sun. While driving around town I see that everyone else's bougainvillea is flowering beautifully, Please Help Me!! Any input is greatly appreciated!

You don't mention where you live or what your zone is, but assuming you're in an area where you get some frost/cold and that's what caused it to lose its leaves, the thing to know is that young plants that aren't as well established are not going to stand up to the cold as well as older more established plants. Microclimates can come into play as well, if everyone else has theirs in a more sheltered area and yours is out in the open then that could make it react worse to cold too. But chances are it's just that it's young and small, so as time goes by it'll eventually come through winters as well as everyone else's.

If I were you, I would be inclined to prune the plant back to healthy green growth so that IF the dead parts of the stem does get some disease then it wont spread down to the healthy parts of the stem, it could be the frost caused die back on the top most tender growth and these have died off, next year you could try wrapping the top growth above the soil with a protective fleece, this allow air into the stems and light, then come spring when new shoots/leaves start to break, you remove the fleece, you buy this fleece at the garden centers where they have all the large rolls of ground cover, here we can either buy the very fine white fabric by the meter or in packets already cut to size, give your plant a feed soon as you notice new buds to give it a boost too. good luck. WeeNel.

Hi, I am glad to say that my plant has grown nice new green leaves at the very bottom of the plant. I believe that Weenel was correct in saying that the top half died out due to no winter coverage. Being a rookie gardner I thought that since we don't really have winter frosts down here in South Texas zone 9 that my B-villea would survive. Well, mother nature proved me wrong! I am going to take Weenel's advice and prune off all the dead twigs or stems. Thanks so much for your input! ecrane3, thanks for always finding the time to reply to my questions and those of other rookie gardners. May the lord bless you with bountyfull blooms this year!

I'm always glad to help...I learned so much of what I know from people here, so I'm trying to pass on whatever I can! I'm glad your bougie is showing some signs of life...I still suspect as it gets older it'll do better during the winters (unless you have an extra cold one of course!)