Enjoying having found this site! I am a decent gardener, but a complete bonsai novice. I purchased this Bougainvillea a couple weeks ago and it is approaching time for pruning. The gardener in me would really shape this long top growth back and form it (the plant is still fairly young)... and wonders why it wasn’t pruned more the last time around. Hoping to find some educated opinions here on how I should approach this.

Thank you!

I am not experienced with this species. But I would let it grow for a few years before doing any pruning.

One of the desired features with bonsai is a thick trunk. The more foliage, the more the trunk thickens.

Br
Magnus

Bougies grow really fast in the tropics, so we have to prune them every 15 days.
But first, as said, let it grow to thicken the trunk. It grows from old wood, so you can hard prune it when the trunk is thick enough for your plans.

Thank you both, appreciate it. I am far from a tropical climate! Plan on nurturing it in the home mostly but for the very short summer here.

A cascade bougainvillea. Probably larger than you would want.

This is in a Buddhist nunnery in Hong Kong noted for bonsai. There were many hundred podocarpus and the majority of the rest were bougainvillea, leaving only hundreds of other species.

I have no idea how they repot, etc., something like this. There were a couple of very large trees in very large pots with workers standing in the pot raking and hoeing. Most of the trees were more normal size. You usually don't have a forklift in your collection of bonsai tools.