Cleaning up winter damage (Bougainvilleas and more…)
Dan_Southwest
| Posted in Southwest Gardening on
As the days start getting noticeably longer and warmer, I get anxious to get out there and dive into the spring projects that have been on hold. The first of these is always the wall to wall cleanup of sulking plants, wind-blown debris and of course any trimming of frost damaged plants. What spring projects are you itching to get to work on?
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Tucson, like most of zone 9, will get just enough frosty nights that my bougainvillea need some selective pruning of damaged branches. I usually wait until they are showing some new green growth. Then I know exactly how far to trim. Some years it's only the exposed tips, but often it is nearly to the ground. Thankfully, they recover quickly and while I may briefly mourn the loss of tall established stems, I know they will reach the roof again in one season.
Here's a tip: I trim their spiny branches down to size right away and drop them directly into old cardboard boxes. No need to handle them twice!