Balcony
Bougainvillea
Pet-safeBougainvillea spectabilis
- Category
- Balcony
- Light
- Full sun
- Watering
- Every 7-10 days
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Mature size
- Climbs several metres if trained on a trellis, or kept as a 1-1.5m compact shrub with pruning
- Pet safety
- Non-toxic to cats and dogs.
Growing note
One of the toughest, most neglect-tolerant flowering plants for an Indian balcony, and counterintuitively flowers best when watered a little less rather than more; established plants can go 7-10 days between waterings, longer than most flowering plants on this list. Non-toxic to cats and dogs if chewed, but the sharp thorns are a real hazard on their own and worth keeping in mind around pets and small children.
Growing Bougainvillea in Indian apartments
Bougainvillea flowers best under a bit of real stress, which runs against most plant-care instinct: a pot that's kept slightly on the dry side and a little root-bound typically blooms harder than one that's watered generously and repotted often, since abundant water and space pushes the plant toward leafy green growth instead of flowers. Heavy feeding has the same effect in reverse, a well-fed bougainvillea often looks lush and full while flowering noticeably less than a leaner one. It also needs genuinely full, unobstructed sun to bloom well, a balcony that gets bright but indirect light, or direct sun for only part of the day, rarely produces the dense flower coverage the plant is known for even though the foliage itself stays healthy. Because it tolerates aggressive pruning so well, bougainvillea is one of the few flowering plants on this list that can be trained into a standard (tree) shape or a compact bonsai-style form with wiring, rather than left to sprawl or climb.