Bougainvillea is a showy and spectacularly colourful evergreen plant. The lowers come in a huge colour range including purple, mauve, pink, apricot, red, yellow, and white. They are actually large paper-thin bracts which surround a central cluster of true flowers, which are tiny and white in colour. Frost free growing conditions are essential for bougainvillea. They can produce repeated flushes of bloom for many months if conditions are right. Bougainvilleas are often sold as house plants, usually trained around a hoop of wire or on a frame, but they can also be grown as a bush, up a wall or over an arch. By nature, they need plenty of room to grow and can easily reach two metres in height. Compact varieties of bougainvillea are available they grow to around one metre high and work well as bushes or can even be planted into a hanging basket.