Today is the day! I am going out there with my pruners and I will be ruthless!
Thank you for all the good information on personal experience locally with bougainvillea and also for providing links I had not found.
That University of Florida link says late winter is a good time of year to prune bougainvillea -- or early spring.
Many years ago, a gardening friend told me that if I want easy care plants I should pay attention to what is planted in commercial landscaping, like malls, etc. because those plants have to be tough.
Well, you know those purple flowers planted at Colony -- I noticed those flowers seemed to not need much attention so........
Last spring, I finally got around to finding out what they are. I bought some, planted them as kind of an edging in the bed where the bougainvillea resides on its trellis, and now......
Thank you, my purple lantana, for behaving so nicely and looking so happy, blooming away, and needing only a little shearing, and for not seeming to care if I am here or not.
And now, I better put this iPad away and go get the pruners and have at that big, boring green thing on the trellis out there.