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Bougainvillea 'Barbara Karst' - A moderately vigorous large evergreen vine with dull dark green broadly-ovate pointed leaves that have slightly wavy margin that produces its magenta red bracts all along the entire length of its stems in multiple flushes over a very long season from late spring through fall and often into winter (profusely) in mild years with the small white flowers conspicuous against the bracts.
Plant in full sun to bring out the bright color of the bracts, if planted in more shade the color will dull to a reddish-blue. It requires very little irrigation along the coast once established. Hardy to about 20-25° F and noted to be one of the hardiest of the bougainvillea and it also tolerates desert heat well. This is the best flowering of the large Bougainvillea in Santa Barbara.
Bougainvillea 'Barbara Karst' is considered to be an interspecific hybrid involving two or more species including Bougainvillea spectabilis, B. glabra and B. peruviana. It was selected by James E. (Jim) Hendry Jr. at his Everglades Nursery in Fort Myer, Florida in the 1940s and named after his daughter. Reportedly it was Jim Hendry's grandmother, Julia Frierson, who brought the first magenta-colored Bougainvilles glabra 'Sanderiana' vine into Florida from Cuba in 1875. 'Barbara Karst' is thought to be a cross between this plant and the cultivar 'Crimson Lake'. 'Barbara Karst' is similar to the cultivar 'San Diego Red' (AKA 'Scarlet O'Hara'), which has larger leaves and fewer but larger orange-red clusters of bracts. We have grown 'Barbara Karst' since 1981.
The name for the genus honors the French admiral and explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1729-1811). Bougainville first visited South American in 1764 on a voyage to settle the Falkland Islands and in 1766 he left on a journey to become the first Frenchman to circumnavigate the globe. On this trip he was accompanied by the botanist Philibert Commerson (AKA Commerçon), who reportedly named the plant they found 'Bougainvillea' but it was not officially described until 1789 by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu. Jussieu actually misspelled the name as Buginvillea, and this name was not corrected until the 20th century. Further intrigue regarding this plant's discovery is that it may have actually been discovered by Philibert Commerson's assistant (and possibly his lover) Jeanne Baré, who he had snuck onboard, disguising her as a man.
The information displayed on this page about Bougainvillea 'Barbara Karst' is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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