Van Veen Nursery

Prepare for your plant's arrival by purchasing some orchid potting mix and an approximately one-gallon sized pot. Your plant will be shipped in planting medium but not in a pot. When it arrives, open your box immediately and plant it in the orchid potting mix in the new pot and water it thoroughly.

With the stress of being shipped, it might take a couple of days for your plant to perk up. However, in our experience, rhododendrons (even the tender and tropical varieties) are resilient. With new planting medium and water your new plant will thrive with your loving care.

• Where to grow: Grow in a frost-free environment. They grow well in pots and can be re-potted if they outgrow their containers. They can be grown indoors or outdoors or in greenhouses, but if grown outdoors, protect them from frost by bringing them indoors during cold winter months. Outdoors, morning sun is desirable with filtered sun or shade midday and in afternoon.
• Growing medium: Vireyas need aeration and good drainage. Many are epiphytic when growing in their natural environment. Your vireya can be planted in an orchid potting mix or you can make your own of equal parts fine bark, coco coir, and pumice or perlite.
• Fertilizing: We feed our plants with a polyon slow-release fertilizer. We recommend you fertilize regularly with a light application of slow release fertilizer. Start with 1/2 the recommended dosage. The worst thing you can do is overfeed. Vireyas are not heavy feeders. They prefer fertilizer that is high in nitrogen, calcium, and magnesium and low in potash, potassium, and phosphorus.
• Watering: Water thoroughly and then allow the planting medium to become barely moist before watering again. Use rain water if tap water is alkaline. Do not allow your plants to sit in standing water. Always water from the top until it drains out the bottom to leach out any build up of fertilizer salts.

In the tropics where vireyas are found in their native habitat, most vireyas can be found growing on branches and trunks high in the tree canopy, or in the ground growing in crevices in rocky terrain. Both of these conditions provide excellent drainage. In the native habitat, frequent (daily) downpours are prevalent.

Lowland species and their hybrid progeny grow in environments in which the night time temperatures do not dip below 59 degrees F. Species and their hybrids from the cooler cloud forests grow in habitats in which night time temps do not dip below 46 degrees F. Signs your plant is stressed due to temperature being too low is if leaves turn red in the winter months.

Higher temperatures (above 80 degrees F) can be tolerated by vireyas because of the high humidity levels in the natural environment. They do well with regular misting in cultivation if humidity is low and temperatures are above 80 degrees.

In their natural habitat, vireyas experience equal 12 hour periods of day and night with very little seasonal variation throughout the year.