Need to be overwintered under cover here - not a hardy plant. Can spend much of the time outside, but not during coldest weather.

They are tough here, what you see of blooms now (most likely forced) may be all you see. Unless we have a cooker for a summer, you probably will end up disappointed. I got one as a gift last year and it got one insignificant little red thang being in full sun all summer.

Likes places like Honolulu.

Right. It is everywhere in Az, Palm Springs, and San Diego. My buddy says many of the locals consider it an invasive weed in San Diego.

Not worth it here. Shame on HD.

Bougs need lots of heat to grow and bloom. Even our hottest summers barely qualify, and that heat only lasts a few days at a time. Then they freeze to the ground with the first frost. They might grow back from the roots if the soil doesn't freeze very far down, but they'd be so slow growing back in our cool summers that you'd never get anything out of them. And I would not expect their roots to take kindly to our cold wet soils in our long winters. They'd need way more than just a little cover in the coldest weather!

On top of all that they're thorny and messy and stiff and awkward. Some people use them as houseplants but you'd need a big, heated, very sunny sunroom or atrium, something with enough room that you wouldn't be accidentally brushing up against the monster.

They're an expensive annual around here.

bougainvillea grows very well in SF which has much colder summers than the pacNW. barely ever gets a hot day.

i would guess that it just needs to be established, and heat is one way for it to establish quickly. i would experiment by keeping in a container and bringing it in during cold spells in the winter here.

might work.

how much is it? worth an experiment?

Big box stores often offer tender plants here, but then so do independent garden centers. They aren't necessarily representing them as hardy plants for outdoor use throughout the year. Some people do have atriums, greenhouses or sun porches where they put potted specimens of plants that need protection.

I have three in my greenhouse. :) They were among the first plants I bought when I got it. I grew up in Phoenix and I dearly love them. Even in the greenhouse they aren't as impressive as they are outside in the Southwest.

Thanx to all who responded -- I'll just save my money for something else.

I just bought the newest plant "golden jackpot" bougainvillea. I have plants in my garden that aren't supposed to survive the winters here. I plan on covering the roots with mulch and just throwing a blanket over it if it freezes, just like I've done with other things. Guess I'll find out. Wish me luck! I have a hibiscus that keeps coming back year after year, it always surprises me because it's not "supposed" to survive here but it keeps coming back and it's beautiful!

A hibiscus that dies down to the roots each year would probably be H. moscheutos or H. coccineus or one of their hybrid derivatives. These are not tender in USDA 8 and would normally come back each spring.

It is also normal for the tops of these to die away every year. These are herbaceous perennials and not tropical broad-leaved evergreen shrubs like Chinese hibiscus - or Bougainvillea.

Sunset Western Garden Book (2007, Sunset Publishing, Menlo Park) says of Bougainvillea:

Use has extended into Zones 5, 6, thanks to low-growing shrubby types that can be purchased in full bloom and grown in containers. These are used on patios as summer annuals and moved to a protected area over winter

Here, in Pasadena, Tx, Bougainvillea grows amazingly well. Its not so bad that anyone considers it a weed, but if you water and watch over it just a bit, you can get a suprisingly beautiful amount of flowers. On the main street that my road runs into, there are two or three houses facing the road that have the pink variety, and you can't see the green of the leaves for the pink of the flowers.

This is my father's old house in Palm Springs. Weed? I think not....

This is 'Raspberry Ice' in my greenhouse last year. Rather pathetic....

I bought a raspberry colored one two years ago. Very pretty when in bloom and quite worth it. In fact, mine makes a relatively attractive inside house plant in winter (in the sun room with the pellet stove), despite the absense of blooms.

The only problem is the plant blooms mostly when the days and nights are equalized. I am not sure heat induces bloom so much as the shorter days of late summer (heat they do like though). I seem able to get blooms in the longest days of summer and sometime spring.

Also, transplant rarely, they sulk forever:-).

They do sulk forever and they hate it if their rootballs fall apart. When I worked at a garden center in Phoenix we sold them with instructions to cut the pots apart to plant and not rough up the rootballs.

There are so many more varieties now than there were then. I do love them.