Vireya or Tropical Rhododendrons are currently blooming amongst Paluma gardens, providing a blaze of brilliant winter colour. Vireya’s are evergreen shrubs producing clusters of trumpet-shaped blooms several times a year. There are many cultivars and they come in a superb range of bright tropical colours. Some varieties have sweetly fragrant flowers. They are native to southeastern Asia and range from Thailand to Australia. They thrive in the cool mountain climate at Paluma and they are relatively easy to grow provided they have good drainage. Some of the varieties in beautiful bloom during June are shown below.
Text & Photos by Michele Bird
Yes we are fortunate that Margaret Mackay introduced the village to these lovely plants. In the late 1980s these were only available thru mail order from a lovely ex PNG resident who operated a specialised vireya nursery in the Maleny area. We did a number of combined orders in those early days. Sadly her original plants some of which were species are no longer alive. I still have a couple from that era as others have not survived the fire drought periods and too much rain times.
Stunningly beautiful pictures. What an amazing riot of colour!