my girlfriend got a couple of huge bougainvilleas at a local nursery a couple of weeks ago. the pots were pretty small and they were spreading sideways; not very flattering, so I cut them back. I'm hoping they'll grow upwards a little bit more now from the reduction in weight, and that they'll sprout two new buds at least where the cut was made.
I just repotted them last night in slightly larger pots using a well draining mix of Scott's peat based potting soil, fine pine bark conditioner and a little coarse sand. (I have the scars to prove it. have you seen the thorns on these things?!? they're like that basilisk tooth Harry Potter had stuck in his arm in that one movie.)
they weren't taking water prior to breaking up the root mass a little, and upon repotting, even though I'd just watered them the night before, the root ball was pretty light, dry & spongy. I read that they have a fragile root system and that the root mass shouldn't be disturbed upon repotting, but I figured they weren't getting enough saturation anyway, so...
okay, so here are my questions:
I'm reading on
http://www.houstongardening.info/bouginfo.htm about rooting cuttings, and the guy says a sub-terminal cutting works best. what's sub-terminal mean?
Can I expect to see two new shoots on the existing branches where I made the cuts?
How do you/can you make them back-bud along the branch?
I'm still not getting a firm feel for which part of a cutting to use for rooting though. I've read about using both new shoots and old wood cuttings.
Is it too late in the season to do this? I'd hate to waste the cuttings I pruned last night. they really needed to be cut back.