Briefly, the "flowers" are actually colorful leaf bracts, and form during short days, so the further north they are grown, the greater the likelihood that blooming occurs around the equinoxes (spring and fall). Small pots are adequate, the soil must be dry before watering (even more so than plumeria), just let the plants wilt and then water.

They can be stored dormant overwinter like plumeria, the leaves will drop, and they can be kept in a cool location, but kept slightly moist so the roots don't dry out completely.

x

Bougainvillea once established are extremely drought tolerant. They can take blazing sun and love heat. I have seen them planted along the freeways in S. AZ that get extremely hot in the summer, and people plant them in their yards here, in gravel and sand with 120 F heat and no problems. They basically treat them like cactus.
They do need water more often when they are in pots. If they start to wilt, water them. If you have a water meter, keep them around a 1 (lowest #) if they are in a pot. I have many bouggies and I keep mine somewhat pot bound and only repot every 2 yrs. They do bloom better potbound. They also seem to love bloom booster and I have always given mine BB and get blooms pretty much year around (except during maybe Jan and Feb having less blooms but they still do bloom !) with no ill effects. Just make sure to water, before you fertilize. If you are going to overwinter them without bright lights you can let them rest and stop fertilizing them at least a few mos before they will be stored. Mine don't seem to like foiliar feeding, not sure why so I just do it the reg. way.

They can tolerate even the poorest soils. For pot culture, you can plant them in a cactus soil with extra perlite mixed in. Or make your own mix, with a good potting mix, sand, and perlite. They have fine roots and must have good drainage or they will root rot.
You can grow them like a shrubby vine or like a standard or espalier them. They overwinter in pots well if you keep them very dry, maybe water once per mo., making sure they dry out in between. I think they are easier to overwinter than say, mandevilleas.
My favorite ones right now are temple fire (starts out brick red -fades to hot pink), alabama sunset (starts out dk orange and fades to med/lt pink), and Seafoam, which starts out green and turns pure white (with no pink tinge) and looks refreshing next to all the other bright/hot tropical colors lol.
~SJN

:0 Danielle
Firegurl

It's been very dry here and I only watered it once. When I first got it I gave it a dose of B1 & ST. I also wanted to make sure it was in a well draining mix, which it seems to be. I figure I'll wait until it looks droopy before I water it again. Would it benefit from misting the foliage?

When I allow it to go dormant this winter how much of the plant can I prune? At the rate this thing is growing it looks like it will be a monster by the end of the growing season. I'll keep it with my brugs and plumies, either in the garage or an unheated greenhouse.

Danielle The BB lilies can take a year to germinate. They might need a period of cold stratification. I had a good link for germination instructions. If I can find it I'll forward it to you.
Karyn