Miss Alice lives beside my front porch. An seemingly obscure variety of Bougainvillea I am training to a column on the porch, she is known for being nearly thornless. Other Bougainvilleas have 2 inch long thorns, I was pruning Miss Alice barefooted and stepped on a cast off branch – ouch! not thornless but I wasn’t punctured. The white flowers are from Miss Alice, a result of a fairly hard pruning as the Bougs transition from vegetative to flowering states. Day length drives the flowering cycle – native to areas near the equator Bougainvilleas flower most when daylight and night hours are equal. I did not realize I could use them as cut flowers, they seem to be lasting. So far, so good.
Here is a closer view:
The white ‘leaves’ are bracts and the actual flowers are the white and green tubes in the center of the flower. Lurid purple berries are from Beautyberry (Calliocarpa americana) which has been producing masses of berries this summer. They are so heavy with fruit the branches fell to the ground. Ferns are from my weedy Asian Sword Ferns and a seedling Sabal Palm (Palmetto sabal) frond completes the backdrop. The vase is a roadside find.
Miss Alice before and after she was tamed.
Happy Gardening and thanks to Cathy at http://www.ramblinginthegarden for hosting this weekly meme.
The Shrub Queen 
Plants have ways of getting revenge. Careful Queen!
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Yep, stabbed in the hand now
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I love Miss Alice’s color. I have a bougainvillea, but it is planted in too much shade.
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Thanks, is yours in the ground?
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Yes and growing under trees. A big mistake.
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Oops! and not something you want to dig up!
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Lovely arrangement. Having never grown it I didn’t know Bougainvilleas have thorns. Glad for the tip to choose Miss Alice.
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Thank you, dreadful thorns on most and people bring them indoors in the winter..
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That is pretty sweet. Even though white is my favorite color, I am none too keen on white bougainvillea. Bougainvillea is just too pretty with vibrant colors, and can look relatively bland in white. In this situation, the beautyberry provides a color that is more like what a bougainvillea would provide.
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Thanks, the other thornless Bougainvillea is purple, I think that would look awful with my peach house?? My will to be stabbed by pruning a giant thorny vine is limited. The one I really wanted was California Gold unfortunately well know for the horror of it thorns. Miss Alice won. And goes with the trim color.
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I do not think that California Gold is very pretty. The foliage can be sparse, and rather drably colored. It is not bad; but is not as pretty as some of the others.
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That bougainvillea is really attractive – but 4″ thorns on some others..really?! I can’t begin to imagine the injuries they could cause – and what are they trying to protect themselves from, anyway?! How intriguing about the day length too. The densely berried callicarpa makes a great partner for Miss Alice and the truncated ferns finish them off nicely. When you say the vase was a ‘roadside find’, what do you mean?
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I hope I said 2 inch thorns. The thorns are nasty, I should do a Six on Saturday about thorns in the tropics. They are appalling. Bougainvilleas are quite interesting. Thanks..roadside find – I found it in someone’s trash while walking the dogs.
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Yes, sorry, you did, but even 2″ sounds pretty vicious!!
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They are nasty, like Robinia or Quince.
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Ah yes, I know quince thorns (and blackthorn) and they are certainly not as viciously long as 2″, not here, anyway!
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Lovely arrangement especially with the addition of the trimmed frond.
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Thanks, Lulu. I enjoy the odd clipped frond…
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Very pretty arrangement, Amy. Love your stylized look– you have the touch! 🙂
Your Beautyberry looks so big and healthy. As you know, mine is a mere shadow in comparison.
Love your selfie in the last shot! 🙂
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Thanks, Eliza. I collected a pile of clipping with flowers and went hmmm. There are a lot of pollinators here for the Beautyberry, the only was I can explain the berries, the one I had in Atlanta was lucky to get a quarter of the berries on these. I tried to crop myself out of the picture but couldn’t do it.
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A (mostly) thornless Bougainvillea would be a joy! After taking out several of the usually vicious kind along the driveway of our former house, my husband hates the plants but he might accept a cool, thornless customer like Miss Alice. And I see that you used your wonderful Callicarpa berry stems as embellish too.
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Yes, I am afraid of the vicious kind and looked for a long time before I found Miss Alice, there is a thornless purple one as well.
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What a nice picture of your Bougainvillea, together with statue of dog and reflection of the barefoot gardener. The vase is very elegant…
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Thank you..
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Beautiful arrangement. Mostly white with a dash of purple. Looks so pure.
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Thank you!
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Bougainvillea in a vase is new to me and looks great – love the greenery as the backdrop. I hope your Bougainvillea didn’t mind such a drastic trim!
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It is new to me as well. Thank you, the Bougainvillea can easily grow a foot a month. I think it will be fine and will flower in a few weeks.
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Oh, I planted pick Double Click Cosmos today!!
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😁🌸
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A really pretty arrangement and your roadside find…how lucky were you. 😊
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Thank you, I never found things in the trash until moving to Florida, it is strange like a rolling garage sale.
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