As I said in a previous post, I bought a house last year that had a completely barren yard. Looking for some color, I purchased six bougainvillea plants from Lowe's, Barbara Karts, and they did wonderfully. During the winter I completely neglected them. I don't think I watered them once for three months. I thought they were completely dead because they lost all their leaves, so I intended to replace them in the spring.

To my surprise, in February they began to grow again from the base. They would not come out from above a certain height, so I cut the wood stems off (which is weird because the wood stems were still green inside, just not producing new growth). Three of the Bougies are on the south side of my yard next to a wooden fence so they only get brief sunlight during the late evenings. They have huge, dark green leaves and are growing outward like crazy (which is what I want, growth then flowering). The ones on the north side of my yard, also in front of a wooden fence, are flowering like crazy, but their leaves are tiny, tiny, tiny, and firm. They are also not growing outward. One looks like a little puff of green with pink flowers all over it about 6 inches high and a foot across.

The ones on the south side of my yard are doing exactly what I want, growing big, then I can taper off the water and let them bloom when they are tall enough to get more sun. However, the ones on the north side I can do without the flowering. I want them to stop flowering and grow instead.

I water all six plants once a week on Fridays. I have placed some composted mulch on all six plants bases and just bought some cow manure to put on top of that to increase the acidity in the soil.

Beyond that, what should I do if I want the ones on the north side of the fence to start getting big? Should I cut off the bracts and flowers? Should I miracle grow (and if so how often)? Should i water them less?

(I was born in Miami and lived in a condo. As a kid we had bougies in our front yard that were giant, shaped bushes. We never once had to water them. They never lost their leaves in winter and always looked great. I'm not used to having to figure out what they want from me to do what i want them to.)

Thanks - as the subject suggest, I live in Tucson, in midtown.