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How to trim my Bougainvillea and encourage more flowers?

I’ve just moved into a new house and the garden needs some help. In particular there is a large bougainvillea that is extremely dense with undergrowth and has minimal flowers.
It is also crowing a second tree which seems to be struggling without sunlight (last picture)

Should I cut all the woody undergrowth back to let some light through & tip around the outside to encourage blooming?
Would love some advice! thank you!

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MitchellMc

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @izy12. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about pruning a Bougainvillea.

You could start by dethatching the dead material from within the branch canopy. Those larger branches that almost touch the ground can be removed as well. Once you've dethatched, you'll be able to have a better look at the branch structure. You might like to wait until the cooler months before doing a hard prune, getting it in form for the following growing season.

Here's a helpful guide that you should find useful: How to plant, grow and prune Bougainvillea.

Let me mention a couple of our gardening experts, @Noelle and @Adam_W, to see if they could share any advice on pruning.

As for the second tree being overshadowed, it's always going to struggle unless you can trim back the Bougainvillea sufficiently. Is the Boug currently engulfing the tree and using it to support its canopy?

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

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