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Bougainvillea 'James Walker' - A vigorous evergreen vine with branches that can reach 30 feet long. It has large medium-green leaves that have wavy margins and very large reddish-magenta long pointed bracts surrounding the larger-than-average white flowers, making the bracts and flowers more prominent than on other Bougainvillea cultivars. The flower bracts on this cultivar start orange then open to an iridescent magenta giving it a bicolored look early in the flowering season, which lasts from late spring well into the fall.
Plant in full sun where it requires very little irrigation along the coast once established. Hardy to about 20-25 degrees F.
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.
Bougainvillea 'James Walker' is also known by the cultivar name 'Ambiance' and it is considered to be an interspecific hybrid involving two or more of the species including Bougainvillea spectabilis, B. glabra and B. peruviana. We have grown this outstanding Bougainvillea cultivar since 1995.
Information displayed on this page about Bougainvillea 'James Walker' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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