Need help with Bougainvillea Vines Please

[Zelda]

Hi,
I'm a Las Vegas, NV resident and am dealing with 3, five foot Bougainvillea plants that were newly planted last August against our stucco house on an 8' metal trellis, facing east.. The house protects these plants quite well from winds etc. They prospered beautifully all last fall, and maintained most of their leaves & flowers throughout the winter months. We covered the entire trellis with a vinyl tarp during the 2-3 times we had overnight temps below 35 degrees or so. Well, once spring started to arrived, many of the upper leaves dropped and many of the upper flowers dropped off too....and some of the vine tips died back about 5". I cut the dead tips off in March. Now, I have a lot of beautiful leaves & flowers at the base of the plant, but there are just very, very tiny leaves as well as clumps of healthy looking flowers both sparcely spaced leaving voids along the upper 2/3rds of the vines. The bottom leaves look normal, but the uppers are small, and somewhat ruffeled along their edges. There is a rare leaf here & there with yellowing at the tip, with brown right on the tip. I see no mite or other insect infestation. Why am I not getting the leaf & flower production on the entire vine that I had in the fall? Should I cut off all the straggly looking vines and hope for more vine production throughout our hot summer, or do I need help with the fertilizer & water needs of this vine or what? Thanks for any suggestions you can offer....

[Zelda]

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If there are no photos, I have no idea how to correct the problem....sorry!

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[opabinia51]

I do know that most of the soils in the Mojave Desert (sp?) are quite sandy. Try ammending the soil with some compost such that it has a higher water holding capacity.

[Newt]

Hi Zelda,

You should find this helpful.
https://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/bougainvillea.html
https://www.houstongardening.info/growboug.htm


Leaf drop:
https://lee.ifas.ufl.edu/horticulturearchive/leafdropof%20bougainvillea.htm

Bacterial leaf spot:
https://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/enpp/pathology/pathcirc/pp343.pdf

Newt