Bougainvillea plants are celebrated for their spectacular display of color, which can transform a landscape with minimal effort. While the plant is often described as having vibrant flowers, the actual blooms are small, typically white or cream, and inconspicuous. The intense, paper-like colors that provide ornamental value are specialized leaves called bracts, which surround the true flowers. These colorful bracts, ranging from red to purple to white, are modified structures that evolved to attract pollinators. This article explores the most popular Bougainvillea types, focusing on the vivid colors of their bracts and their various size characteristics.
Categorizing Growth Habits
The ultimate size and shape of a Bougainvillea cultivar determine its function in a garden, making its growth habit a primary consideration for selection. Cultivars are generally grouped into three main categories based on their mature size. The most expansive group is the vigorous climber or vine, which can reach impressive heights of 15 to 40 feet with proper support, making them suitable for covering large arbors, fences, or walls. These varieties require substantial infrastructure to manage their growth.
A second category includes shrub or bush-type varieties, which typically grow to a more manageable 4 to 8 feet tall and wide. They are often used as standalone specimens, for creating colorful hedges, or for training into a small tree form. The final size category is the dwarf or compact type, which is suited for container gardening, hanging baskets, or use as a low groundcover. These smaller varieties usually mature between 2 and 6 feet tall, offering intense color in a more confined space.
Popular Types: Reds, Pinks, and Purples
The red, pink, and purple cultivars are the most traditional and recognizable types of Bougainvillea, featuring the intense, saturated colors for which the genus is famous. A vigorous climber that epitomizes this color group is ‘Barbara Karst,’ a highly popular variety known for its reliable and profuse blooms of deep magenta-red bracts. This variety exhibits a moderate to fast growth habit, often reaching up to 30 feet tall, making it a choice for quickly covering large structures. Another expansive selection is ‘San Diego Red,’ which produces a deep, true-red color and is a vigorous grower used for large-scale landscape coverage.
Moving toward the magenta and hot pink spectrum, ‘Miami Pink’ is a larger variety that can grow 20 to 30 feet, showcasing bright hot-pink blooms. For gardeners seeking a more contained pink, ‘Pink Pixie’ is a dwarf variety, growing only 2 to 4 feet tall, ideal for patios or small garden spaces. In the purple range, ‘New River’ is known as an industry-standard purple, producing deep violet bracts on a vigorous vine that can easily climb 20 to 40 feet. A popular alternative is ‘Vera Deep Purple,’ a semi-dwarf variety that produces fuchsia-colored bracts on a compact plant reaching about 4 feet, offering deep color without aggressive spread.
Popular Types: Whites, Yellows, and Bi-Colors
The less common white, yellow, and bi-colored varieties offer unique contrast and softer tones than the traditional magentas and reds. For pure white color, ‘Miss Alice’ is a slow-growing, dwarf-like cultivar that features large, persistent white bracts on a plant with fewer thorns. This variety typically remains in the 3 to 6-foot range, making it a suitable choice for containers and low planting areas.
In the yellow-to-gold spectrum, ‘California Gold’ is a prolific choice, growing as a shrub-like vine that can reach 15 to 30 feet. Its bracts begin as a pale gold and mature into a warmer, orangey-bronze color. For a more vigorous yellow, the ‘Lady Baring’ cultivar is a fast-growing, thick-branching plant that produces large clusters of gold-colored bracts. This variety is considered a vigorous climber, requiring support to manage its size.
Bi-colored types offer unique visual interest, such as ‘Imperial Delight,’ which features white bracts that develop a faint pink shading at the tips. The ‘Raspberry Ice’ cultivar is known for its variegated leaves of green and cream, which beautifully frame its raspberry-colored bracts. This is an extremely slow-growing, compact variety perfect for containers.