The thorns are gone

We used to have bougainvillea climbing our arbor. The flowers were beautiful.

However, the thorns were not. Now one might say, "If the bougainvillea was in your arbor you wouldn't have to worry about the thorns, right?"

Not so my blogging friends! As soon as it is done blooming it turns woody & brittle and breaks off leaving thorns all over the patio & grass, if there is wind of any sort. Brian & I hated it because if we wanted to take Cameron outside to play we had to sweep and rake and then sweep again the patio & then scan the grass for any twigs. Needless to say, Cameron didn't go outside much & that made us sad. So, we decided that we were going to take out the bougainvillea and replace it with another flowering vine less the scary 2 in thorns. After going to a nursery and speaking with someone there I have decided on Rangoon Creeper it is a fragrant flower that blooms white and over the course of its life turns pink and then lastly red.

The vine also grows fast. We were told that by the end of Summer our whole arbor would be covered which will be nice. I am really looking forward to getting it in. Today was stage one. Brian's parents came over and his dad helped him cut it, get it off the arbor and cut out the roots. Stage two will be clearing out the now massive pile of Bougainvillea behind our garage & digging out the rest of the roots (we forgot to get a shovel). Stage three will me putting in the Rangoon Creeper (Yay!). Cameron was very sad that he couldn't help & frustrated that he couldn't go out and be with the other guys. I wish I had taken pictures to show what an undertaking it really was. Oh well, you will just have to take my word for it.