It must be 9 times out of 10 that when I hear someone name this plant they call it a Boganvilla - you know, like a villa that you'd live in. I kinda smile, while thinking of Roman villas, a villa at the sea, the villas in Camps Bay, and then nod knowingly, usually in agreement that the plant is extremely beautiful and yet an evil tyrant of the garden.

The Bougainvillea is very common in gardens all over our province. They're most often this purple-pink colour, but sometimes you'll find ones with orange or even white flowers. The reason for me referring to them as evil tyrants of the garden is that they grow like demons and bear long, hard, sharp thorns that cause their victim to itch for hours after being pricked. Also, they tend to makes gardens look extremely messy once their pretty purple bits fall to the floor as ugly semi-translucent pieces of brown.

I have a love/hate relationship with the plant. And, for what it's worth, we have three in our garden. I have nightmares. :)