Bougainvilleas are drought resistant, free from pests and disease, romantic, glowingly colorful, and easy to grow — but not easy to plant or get started. Use them as large ground covers on banks and have them pouring over walls, roofs, fences, and arbors. Here is the best way to plant them.

Choose plants with the color, eventual size, and growth habits you desire in mind. Some are vines and some are shrubs. Some are more vigorous than others. Five-gallon size plants make a faster start in the ground than the one-gallon size.

Choose a spot in full sun, preferably where the root run — the area where the roots grow — is also hit by full sun. (In the desert and hot areas of the country, bougainvilleas will bloom in light shade.)

Dig a hole twice as wide as the container and the same depth as the container. Loosen the soil in the bottom of the hole, and work in 2 or 3 cupfuls of bone meal. (If the soil is heavy also work in gypsum.) Cover this with enough soil that, when you set in the plant, the top of the root ball will be level with the surrounding ground. Add slow-release fertilizer tablets, according to package directions, around the bottom of the hole.

Bougainvilleas are fragile when young and often killed when they are planted because their roots and crown are broken. Turn the plant on its side. With sharp pruning shears, cut around the bottom of the container and look to see if it is well-rooted. If it is, slip the plant out sideways by pushing from the bottom. Lower it carefully into the hole while supporting the roots with your hands. Backfill with native soil.

If the plant is not well rooted, slit the sides of the container from the bottom up in several places, then tape it back together with masking tape. Lower the plant into the hole with the taped container holding the roots in place. Loosen the tape and slide the bottom out. Slip out the cut pieces from the sides as you backfill the hole with native soil.

Press the soil down around the plant with your hands (not too hard). The top of the root ball should be even with the surrounding ground.

Make a watering basin, and water deeply right away. Then in fast-draining soils, for three days water once a day; for the next two weeks water three times a week; and for the following month water twice a week. Thereafter, for the first three years, water once a week. In clay soils you should water enough to keep the root ball damp but not soggy for the first three weeks to four weeks. Thereafter water deeply after the ground dries out.

Bougainvilleas are drought resistant not because they don't need water but because their roots go deeply into the ground until they find an underground water source. When young, they take all the water they can get, as long as drainage is adequate. Feed them once a month each year between April and August.

After three to five years you can stop fertilizing in summer, stop watering in winter, and reduce the frequency of summer watering to once a month or every six weeks — or perhaps never, depending on placement and variety. (Container-grown vines will always need regular fertilizer and water.)

Perennial morning glories (Ipomoea acuminata) get started rapidly when planted now. Grow them from seeds or plants in full sun and in ordinary or poor soil, with no nitrogen fertilizer added. (Keep morning glory seeds away from children- they're poisonous). Water them regularly to get them going and occasionally thereafter.

These vines are invasive, drought resistant, and permanent once established. Use morning glories for an old-fashioned, colorful look and to hide chain link fences. They're not for formal gardens but can be an eye-catching ornament in the right spot.

To keep New Guinea impatiens from wilting in hot weather, place shallow saucers under 8 and 10 inch plastic containers. Water the plants daily with enough water to fill the saucer to overflowing. During the day the roots will take an extra drink as needed, and the saucer will be dry by nightfall. (Don't try this on other plants--they'd die from root rot.)

Each time you feed impatiens, select the two longest shoots on opposite sides of the plant. Cut off two-thirds of their length. The plants will remain full, well branched and bushy. When an impatiens wilts from too much heat, sun, or dryness, don't despair. Plunge the entire container up to the stems of the plant in a bucket of water. Come back in half an hour; the plant will have recovered.

Steve was born in Bakersfield, raised in Los Gatos. In 2nd grade he broke his Catholic school's strict dress code by not wearing a belt, and was promptly banished to playing hopscotch with the girls. When he moved in 3rd grade, the same nun moved to his new school also to keep an eye on him. Ever the one with women, he eventually charmed the ruthless nun into liking him and he became her teacher's pet.

His closest brush with fame was having his picture taken with Willie Mays in Pony League.

Not ones to shy away from an adventure, Steve and his high school buddies snuck into the high school Ag-science department at night to ride the giant pig and were promptly thrown into the fence.

Steve has been in the nursery and landscape industry for the past 14 years, having previously managed another garden center in San Jose. He has been a part of our family for the past 5 years.

Steve loves to play golf, go fishing and camping. He once got a hole in one while playing golf, which he followed up by landing the "big" one on the banks of the Klamath River. (Neither episode has ever been documented.) Steve has lived with his best friend Jeanne for the past three years.