Re: Vireyas cultivars more tolerant of frosts
- Subject: Re: Vireyas cultivars more tolerant of frosts
- From: R* S*
- Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 09:05:42 -0700
david feix wrote:
> Moira,
> I can't remember if I already sent this reply to you
> on the Vireyas, hope this isn't the second time...
>
> Recently Moira in New Zealand wrote of losing her
> Vireya Rhododendrons to a hard freeze, and was asking
> if anyone knew of hardier varieties.
I would suggest contacting John Kenyon of Te Puna Cottage Gardens, in
Tauranga. He has an excellent selection of plants (including a lot of newer
australian hybrids), and undobtedly some that are more cold tolerant. He
has a new website at http://www.vireya.co.nz/
I understand that importing of any plant material to NZ is very didfficult -
otherwise you might be able to order something from Bovee's nursery in
Washington state, USA. I understand that he has some cold tolerant variety
hybridized by Jim Gerdman that he is growing. I think even he would say
that no vierya is going to withstand consistent temps well below freezing,
but only the occasional mild frost.
You might also try inquiring of the vireya list at Yahoogroups.
>
> Chip Lima suggests the following, which makes me realize that
> I never give frozen back plants long enough to confirm
> they really are dead:
> > >
> > Just wait and cut back to the ground. They can
> > resprout. I have heard of
> > some growing back as much as 3 years later.
I have also had some vireyas resprout along the bottom of the trunk, some
six onths after a frost apparently killed the plant. Best to take them
indoors or cover when a frost is comng though.
For more info, here is a vireya newlsetter for your part of the world, "The
Vireya Venture" edited by Neil Puddey, PO Box 126, Woolgoolga, NSW,
Australia (cost $10Aus. per year I think; email at puddey@bigpond.com ).
Another (out of the US) is the "Vireya Vine" Address is Vireya Vine,
Rhododendron Species Foundation, PO Box 3798, Federal Way, Wa. 98063,
USA. E. White Smith, Fran Rutherford and Lucie Sorensen-Smith, editors.
Cost $10 US.
Richard Starkeson, Berkeley, California
