[Arid_gardener] Bouganvillas - Winter Problems

[olin miller]

Bougainvillea is evergreen only if it does not freeze.  It is very frost 
tender and nearly always experiences some foliage damage in the winter in 
the Phoenix.  For more info about Bougainvillea see
http://cals.arizona.edu/pima/gardening/aridplants/Bougainvillea_glabra.html

For some ideas about frost protection see
http://cals.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/az1002.pdf

Olin
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---- Original Message ----- From: "Kelly Conroy" 
<kconroy at indigopartners.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 12:43 PM
>I have two bouganvillas in my back yard for 3 winters now.  I have
> another that is in its second winter.  Everytime we get a freeze, the 3
> winter bouganvillas shrivel, dry up and "die".  However, if I cut them
> down to the trunk in the spring, they regrow.  I was under the
> impression that these only go dormant (if that's the right word) for the
> winter during their first season and that they should stay green
> throughout winters after that first winter season.  Yet mine shrivel up
> each winter and need to regrow each spring.  Why is this?  I can't cover
> them during freezes because they grow to be enormous and they are the
> type that poke out in 10 different directions, making them difficult to
> cover.
>
> Can anyone make any recommendations as to how to prevent them from
> shriveling up every winter?   That other bouganvilla, in it's second
> winter, has not shriveled up this year (it did last year, it's first
> winter).