Spruce Up Your Garden With Rhododendrons

From 9 AM to 1 PM on Saturday April 27, the De Anza Chapter of the American Rhododendron Society, in front of the Masonic Lodge at 146 Main Street, Los Altos, will have a Rhododendron Plant Sale. As at past Plant Sales, besides obtaining choice rhododendrons from Bay Laurel Nursery in Scotts Valley, there is a good chance that there will again be Vireya Series rhododendrons from Pacific Island Nursery. http://pacificislandnursery.com Information on Vireya Series Rhododendrons can be seen at http://www.vireya.net https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v32n1/v32n1-leach.htm Vireyas make superb container plants which are perfect for a small and patio gardens. http://pacificislandnursery.com/page33.html Coming from the tropics, vireyas can bloom several times a year. Every time I visited Bill Moynier’s garden, Narnia was in bloom. Asked him about that, and Bill Moynier said that Narnia and similar vireyas can be in bloom “thirteen months of the year”. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v46n1/v46n1-moynier.htm http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v35n2/v35n2-headlam.htm Christy Hartsell, who lives in Palo Alto and has a collection of over 500 vireya plants recommends that they should be grown in containers because if another Arctic Express comes, the vireyas can be moved to a protected area. In San Francisco, vireyas can be seen at the San Francisco Botanical Garden and at the garden created by Peter Sullivan at St. John the Evangelist Church, 65 St. Marys Avenue, San Francisco. https://www.sfbg.org/copy-of-cantua-buxifolia-april https://www.yelp.com/events/photos/_wVSx8e1Hj-Y-igocCNfgg?select=0J6IsDVI4mrMqCn76Po8SA Many vireyas were hybridized at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v23n4/v23n4-osborn.htm http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v23n4/v23n4-brydon.htm http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v30n2/v30n2-brydon.htm http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v44n3/v44n3-brydon.htm http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v49n3/v49n3-sullivan.htm http://www.vireya.net/archive/VV/VV75-0505.pdf At the Gardens at Lake Merritt in Oakland, besides seeing regular rhododendrons (including Maddenii Series rhododendrons and some of Rhododendron occidentale discoveries by Mike McCullough) in the rhododendron garden, there is a special Vireya Garden. http://gardensatlakemerritt.org http://gardensatlakemerritt.org/rhododendrons/ http://gardensatlakemerritt.org/vireya-garden/ http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-Den-of-exotic-flowers-blooms-by-the-Lake-2740633.php http://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/Vireya-rhododendrons-still-prize-to-behold-3294599.php Vireyas grow in the same habitat as orchids. http://www.vireya.net/archive/LeachRHS77.pdf http://www.vireya.net/archive/CallardRSF2011.pdf http://www.vireya.net/archive/GoheenMossmanARS83.pdf http://www.vireya.net/archive/DoleshyARS77.pdf If one can grow orchids, one can also grow vireyas. Information on the De Anza Chapter, and the rest of the American Rhododendron Society can be found at: http://www.deanza-ars.com https://www.rhododendron.org https://www.rhododendron.org/membership.htm Please come to our Plant Sale and purchase outstanding rhododendrons.