Do you like ORANGE??

It is my new color this season. I can't get enough of it.

I have started to grow vireyas this last year and found this one this weekend. I must have it.

The color was even more intense than it is showing in these photos. They glistened.

very nice color - plant?

It is a Vireya, I am trying to get the cultivar IDed for sure right now. Vireyas are tropical rhododendrons.

Here is another one. They are incredible. And can be a very small plant so you can grow a lot of them. LOL

Oooo....that last one is yummy! Yes, love orange!

They come in PINK too. LOL!!!

Many shapes and sizes.

And can bloom 3 or 4 times a year.

Hi Kell-
They probably like it acidic, don't they??

...we are at the complete opposite spectrum...strong alkaline. ;o(
sure enjoyed the pictures

I'd LOVE to find a rose in the colors of that yellow/orange one...

-T

Just this year I have started to be crazy about orange- in flowers that is and those are just too beautiful!

Oh Oh { raising hand } me me, I like orange!! You knew that though.

Whoa, I didn't read that part! That makes this particular orange even more attractive!

Kell
Your so lucky to be able to find them. Nobody has them in Florida so I can only go by the pictures on the net before i receive mine. Here's a good site that has a lot of the vireyas listed by Color it may help you name it. How many do you have now and which ones. If you have any in bloom right now I have a favor to ask of you.
http://www.vireyasonline.com.au/index.php

Oh oh, why did ya have to post that link?!! Danger danger!

Bet that second orange you posted Kell is 'Christo Rey'. That's the one I had for you and lost.

Ohhh, look at that pretty 'Dixie'!!
and WOW, 'Our Margaret'!! Mmmmm
and Kell...check out 'Our Mary'!!! Your colors!
and look how sweet those blooms on 'Toff' are!

Ok, good thing this nursery is in Australia. I am NOT looking for these anywhere else, really!

Oh I will have too look but I am off and running on aroids today. I tell you I am so pathetic. I started looking at Enid's website and immediately felt so needy. I saw a Alocaisia 'Calidora' the other day and it is haunting me. But it is winter and common sense is trying to win out.

You are a lost cause Kell!

I really am, Sue. I was starting to transition to not having to have all I like but learning to enjoy just by being a lookie loo but I am back needing to possess again. Thank goodness I am not into diamonds.

I am off to go look at a vireya garden now in Oakland where I can only look and not have. Talk later.

I need to expand my 'orange' zone.

That pink one's flowers look almost identical to the NE native Rose Bay rhododendron, which grows throughout the Appalacchains.... It's too bad that rhododendrons (and thier ilk) require acid soil... my side of the county is all limestone. :-(

Those are pretty plants, though, Kell. Heh, I didn't even know that the Rhododendron family had any tropical members.

I do!
Yes- I see that roving eye for the cool plant is working great!
Rj

Kell
My V. 'Orange Flambe' is at it again, I'm just showing off i guess. It really has been my best performer. Did you ever get any others?
My 'Cristo Rae' another orange finally has a bud on it after 2 years.

Before I saw Celt's post I was going to ask 'why doesn't anyone in Florida have these'. I love them!! And I'm not necessarily an orange freak...
So - how do I obtain these????

Hety, The only place I have ever seen them was down in the Keys many years ago. I have looked for them and especially whenever I travel in FL but they are sure hard to find. Is there a reason they could not be grown as tropicals on the East coast? Some grower ought to pick up on this. I would sure drop a bundle of $ on a plant with such clear, brilliant colors.

I have one in my grhouse. Right now, it seems to not be growing very fast, but I am hoping once spring comes, it will take off. If this one does well, I plan on getting more-I love the way they look!

Tigerlily, I have been told they are slow growers and most stay pretty small. Where did you get yours?

I got mine from an ebay seller from Hi, and I have looked at ebay alot since then looking for others to buy and haven't seen any. Celt gave a great website for them from Hi, and I have seen a few other websites for them. I will get from one of them in the spring-they have a great selection, and give good info on the more proliferic bloomers and what is most fragrant.
I wish they grew faster!! :( It is putting out new growth-so thats good-means I haven't killed it yet!! lol

I'm certainly liking that orange!

TigerLily
I know its hard when you've been waiting so long for them to grow but you have to pinch when they're young to get bushy adult plants. If you have two growth spurts at least pinch one back.

if anybody is looking for them i find the best place is
www.pacificislandnursery.com

(Edited to fix link , thanks Raydio)

Neil

This message was edited Dec 9, 2006 5:33 PM

http://www.pacificislandnursery.com/

You read my mind!...thanks

That is a terrific nursery...and Sherly and DH are delightful! There is a white one called St. Cecilia with a flower truss as big as a basket ball and SO fragrant.

There is also an orange one, like yours Kell...with a very strong fragrance...beautiful fragrance!!! I am planting a lot of them too!!!

Good taste, guys....

Celt, very pretty!

Rj, you will love these! You have such great plant taste. Like mine. LOL

Oh Carol I was just thinking of you last night wondering if you were still growing brugs.

I have quite a few vireya now, mostly small ones I obtained from the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum sales. I am still hot for them.

So far they are trouble free and handling it down to low 30s, no frost yet. I did toss a sheet over them. I find they are very forgiving as far as letting them dry out a bit too long. Now we will see if I can get them to bloom a lot. I need to get a fertilizing program down for them.

The first photo of the intense orange one is Kamrau Bay. And the second more yellow one is George Budgen.

Here is a lovely large one, Karen Morebeck.

Oh dear, can you smell the plastic burning??????

I sure would Kell! They are beautiful.
My woodroses are still kicking, mattter of fact they seem to enjoy the respite of cooler weather. Too cool for my tastes. It's been in the 30's for nearly two weeks. We are back in appropriate temperatures this week. Oddest things froze, and odder things didn't. Jade vine, not phased, clerodenrums fried, Coconut tree perky as ever. What the world is going on?

Hi Carol- how are you..Can you believe the Jade vine is still alive? I was duly advised it would be the first to go.

Now to plant some orange to compliment it!

Hi again Rj!! I have noticed clerodendrums are so tender for being such aggressive plants. I had to bring in my Clerodendrum bungei inside and it was not even that cold but it started to go downhill. I sure hope your collection is not gone. You had so many neat ones.

Gosh orange with that jade vine, be still my gaudy heart. Do you have any pics of your jade vine flowers. I see that one on eBay on occasion and have to slap my hand from bidding.

I just found this pic today of a vireya. I need to find the name on this one. Drives me nuts till I do. Does this one not say YOU NEED ME??

kell, oh kell~~ I saw you on the Brug forum right after I joined, now I have 6 brugs, I see you on the rose forum, and your pic of 'Eden' has me buying 2 of them to grow over the focal point of my new garden. Now I pop in on this thread, and darned if I don't feel the itch to try these gorgeous plants! You must feel like you have a "plant stalker' or something.... LOL :-) I am really not like this with everyone, our tastes just seem parallel....

Seriously though, these are stunning plants, and from what little i have been able to find and read, they are compact, and not terribly hard to grow. Do you get any of them online, or just at local nurseries??

Thanks for this thread, finding a new plant to grow is like a present one can get for themselves, and it is almost Christmas....

Jamie

I think vireyas are one of the wonderful secrets in tropical growing! We are planting a lot of them (yes yes...pictures WILL be coming) and there is a new guy at the Sunday market who sells them for almost nothing....not the most beautiful 'plants' but great vireyas that can be pruned and shaped and ... VOILA. They are easy to propagate, not deep rooted so we can grow them here in our shallow soil...not too prone to bugs like mites (eh, Kell?).

Kell...I still love my Brugs...but they were becoming so time consuming what with the fertilizing every 10 mins, and the bugs, and the pruning back and the...the...the... I haven't added to my collection in quite a while and find just time to maintain them is hard to find. If da' bugs wannem dey gettim!!! There ARE so many beautiful plants...and I'm like a kid in a candy store... have about 50 epis I need to put up in trees, hoyas that need to go out, vireyas rooting, costus and ginger to prune back... bromiliads to split up (and seeds to germinate). One brug I would dearly love to grow is a double pink....(eh, Kell???????, oh Kell?????)

Here is a vireya I got at the market..1 gal. pot, in bloom...

AlohaHoya~~ I have the most amazing picture in my minds eye from reading your post....you are truly taking advantage of the climate you live in, and I can only imagine what your garden looks like and the fragrance - must be intoxicating!!

Thank-you for posting that pic.....it's very striking! What a great deal you got!

Jamie

Why, oh Why, did I open this thread?
Enablers, the whole bunch of ya!!!!! Be ashamed.
: D

Lets trade Carol......I will send you a double PINK for that vireya. LOL
And another DP for past debts.

Jamie, I tell you Dave's is so bad for thos of us that need plants. My basic problem is I like everything. I am a plant pig.

I agree Carol, a few brugs go a long way! You are living in paradise for sure.

Right with you on brugs Carol and Kell. I've never been able to grow them successfully although neighbors that completely ignore (and that has to be the key) their property have huge 8' x 8' plants that bloom year round. Go figure. I just gave my last two potted brugs away; there may still be a few in the ground but I'll probably never find them in my jungle.

Kell, quick, find out the name of that pink and white vireya; that is just too beautiful and I may have to have one of those also. Decided to wait until after the holidays before I order any; it gets so dreary here in January and new plants always make me happy. DH says actually I get a bit delirious opening boxes of plants; for me they are better than Christmas stockings.

Think I am addicted?????? ( Don't answer that ) lol