help with bougainvillea?

[Desirai]

I fell in love with bougainvillea trees about a year ago when I saw some bougainvillea bonsais.

Today I was browsing a gardening center, and omgosh! They had 5 bougainvilleas for sale. I had to have one.

I live between zone 7 and 8 (depending who you ask) in Alabama, USA.

The tag says "Climbing variety"

It's small, about a foot tall with leaves/branches/flowers/mess sticking out in all directions.

Does it need a trellis or something to climb on?
Or will it grow like a tree and then the branches hang down (like a weeping willow or a weeping cherry)

Or something different?

It says it is not cold hardy however. Should I just keep it in a pot, or is there a way to take care of it in the winter time (placing a bag over it or something?)

Thanks.

[keskat]

I'm not real familiar with the various growing habits of bougies, but all the ones I've seen climb - on everything. And have been huge. And we're talking much less than ideal circumstances, here, too. So, at a guess, I would say you need something for it to climb.

I've no idea about caring for it throughout the winter. The ones I'm familiar with are in the Bay area, so they were never really exposed to much of a winter.