What is eating my bougainvillea?

In a matter of two weeks my beautiful bougainvillea has gone from full and flowering to barely clinging to a few remaining leaves. It is a young plant (about 3 feet tall) and it has been rainy and cool lately (I'm in Miami). However, I don't believe that these conditions are too much to blame. What worries me most is that it looks like its being nibbled on but I can find no insects (perhaps bacteria?). I don't think its spider mites and it looks like its spreading to my tomatoes.


Can my plant be salvaged?

What is eating my bougainvillea?
I have a large bouganvillea on a trellis that covers the side of my house. I would imagine it was planted when the house was built, as the trunk is at least8" wide. I am in Daytona and have had NO problems with this plant at all, so the rainy cool weather is definitely not to blame.





What I would do is take and cut a piece of your plant (that has the damaged leaves) and take it to a local nursery to show them. They should be able to tell you what type of parasite may be working on your plant, or if there is a fungus, mold, etc that may be affecting it. As far as I have known Bougainvilleas are extremely hardy.





I actually had to cut mine completely back because it was so large, the branches were actually tearing my trellis away from the wall. I cut it ALL the way back to where there was almost nothing left... did this in March.. it is now back to covering the wall again..(8ft. tall x about 10 ft. wide)





If you can find out what is going on with it, you should be able to correct the problem and have a beautiful plant again. Good Luck!
Reply:It may be that it's getting too much water..they are sun LOVING plants and i know that i can never get it right when it comes to them...the only time i ever kept one alive was before i had indoor cats...the plant stayed in my sunroom and it lasted a good long while..but when i tried to plant them..%26lt;---i cant even try to spell it right now)...i tried to plant them outside and i never sucessfully kept them going, they always died because of the location of my flower garden..they are gorgeous when you can sucessfully grow them. Try moving it into direct sunlight and watering only every other day or so. Good luck
Reply:I ate 'em, sorry. %26lt;burp%26gt; Hey, I didn't see your name on them, how was I supposed to know?
Reply:I had this problem last year with my bouganvillea. It was some kind of tiny beetle and the plant looked like lace when they got finished. That is the only thing I can think it may be. Your climate is not doing it. I live in the same area and mine are fine right now, although running dormant.