For a fuller story on the Jury vireyas, go to The Jury Vireya Legacy, written for and published by the RHS in 2012.

The love affair here with the somewhat exotic genus of vireya rhododendrons can be traced back to Felix Jury’s intrepid plant hunting trip to New Guinea in 1957. He brought back a particularly good orange-gold form of the species macgregoriae and started his early breeding from this plant. At the time, vireyas were not well known in New Zealand and there was little understanding of their potential as garden plants. While they need protection from all but the lightest of frosts, vireyas have proven very popular in warmer parts of New Zealand. We use them extensively in the garden and while they can get a little leggy in woodland areas, with enough plants there are always vireyas in flower, not matter what time of the year.

• Buttermaid (aurigeranum x macgregoriae) An early Felix Jury hybrid. Tubular flowers in a truss of up to 22 in pale yellow. Upright tidy growth. Very free flowering. Excellent garden plant.
• Candy Sunrise Another konori x Halo hybrid of Mark Jury’s – good, large flower, heavily scented in candy pink and yellow bi-colour and heavily felted foliage. Shame it proved problematic in the nursery with a tendency to root problems!


Cherry Pie - spreading habit and rich pink flowers

• Cherry Pie (? konori cross) Exceptional Felix Jury hybrid. Large, heavy textured cherry pink flowers in good sized heads. Beautiful large rounded glossy leaves on a spreading well furnished bush. Ideal for garden, tubs or baskets. This cultivar has proven to be a good performer over time.
• Frosted Candy (konorii x Halo series) Mark Jury hybrid. Huge flowers with honey cream centre, fading through white to pink frosted edge. Lightly scented. Sturdy growth with matt dark grey green pointed leaves and bronzed new growth. Med/large grower but well furnished. A difficult nursery plant as it is not strong in the roots but once established, it has proven to be a vigorous and spectacular garden plant.


Golden Charm

• Golden Charm (macgregoriae x Princess Alexandra) Felix Jury hybrid. Trusses of many smaller flowers in apricot to orange. Red stems and dark glossy foliage are outstanding. Vigorous but compact. Tends to mass flower, unlike most vireyas.


Hot Gossip

• Hot Gossip (? konorii cross) Felix Jury hybrid. Handsome ovate leaves with rusty scales, red stems and red midriff to leaves. Flowers may open pale but intensify to a rich tropical crimson red. Tubular flowers with star-shaped petals. Freeflowering.
• Jaffa (Halo x javanicum) Mark Jury hybrid. Luscious, large, glossy green leaves and large trumpets in full truss of up to 15, in bright red to orange. Tropical look, even when not flowering. Bushy, lower growing.
• Jellybean (Red Rover x stenophyllum) Mark Jury release. A cute little curiosity. Long narrow clusters of grassy leaves and waxy red tubular bells like giant red jellybeans (loosely speaking). Small and compact. Not likely to be in production.
• Lipstick (konorii x )Felix Jury hybrid. Very dark forest green foliage and masses of medium sized white flowers with deep pink frosting, tubular with star shaped petals. Excellent performer.
• Lullaby (jasminiflorum x) Felix Jury hybrid. Dainty tubular flowers in the softest of pinks. Good compact growth and long flowering time.


Lulu - subtle colours and very long flowering season

• Lulu Felix Jury hybrid. Butter yellow throat with subdued orange lobes. Lovely subtle colouring. Good compact growth. 5 flowers per truss. Prolonged flowering.


Mango Sunset

• Mango Sunset (macgregoriae hybrid) Mark Jury hybrid. Mass flowers on young plants. Up to 20 flowers in round trusses covering the spectrum of sunset colours, changing from lemon golds through to hot coral orange. Reasonably tough and easy to grow, forming a small to medium spreading bush.
• Mellow Yellow (Buttermaid x commonae) Mark Jury hybrid. Compact and freeflowering lemon yellow with clusters of many smaller flowers and excellent foliage and habit.
• Orangemaid (laetum x macgregoriae) Felix Jury hybrid. Healthy, vigorous garden plant with mass flowering in orange, apricot to yellow tones. Large number of smaller flowers to the truss.


Orange Sparkles

• Orange Sparkles (retusum x macgregoriae hybrid) Mark Jury hybrid. A very freeflowering sturdy little grower with small, very dark leaves and masses of small flowers in sunset tones. Exceptionally healthy.


Peach Puff

• Peach Puff (phaeochiton/leucogigas/lochiae selfed) Mark Jury hybrid. Very fragrant, huge soft peachy pink flowers in a full truss. Dense bushy growth, heavy foliage.


Pink Jazz - named for a daughter with an obsession for hot pink

• Pink Jazz (konorii x Halo series) Mark Jury hybrid. Very large, very bright lolly pink flower with central star in cream. Scented. Outstanding foliage – dark red new growth and bushy habit. Spectacular garden plant once established but not easy as a nursery plant.
• Queen of Diamonds (R. lochiae x R. macgregoriae) Early Felix Jury hybrid. Healthy, glossy foliage, red stems and a mass of pinky-red flowers.
• Red Rover Felix Jury hybrid. Spreading bush with good sized red flowers in abundance, colour deepening with age. Has proven very reliable.
• Satans Gift (konorii x zoelleri) Felix Jury hybrid. Highly fragrant, showy large konorii type flowers in yellow and brilliant orange-red. Good foliage, well furnished bush. Strong grower and one of the healthiest of these large fragrant types.


Sherbet Rose - smaller flowers but a powerful fragrance

• Sherbert Rose (Hot Gossip sister x herzoggii) Mark Jury hybrid. Highly fragrant salver flowers like pink rockets – tubes to 4.5cm and long, 10 to a truss. Bushy, compact, freeflowering and vigorous.
• Silken Shimmer (konorii x Dr Sleumer) Felix Jury hybrid. Wonderful large lilac pink flowers, smelling strongly of carnations. Handsome upright plant with thickly felted greyish foliage.
• Strawberry Fields (Satans Gift x brookeanum) Mark Jury hybrid. Scented strawberry red star flowers with translucent pale throat. Large flowers. Very dark leaves with silver sheen and reddish stems. Open, upright growth. Showy. We discontinued production because while it performed well as a garden plant, it was just too weak in the roots as a nursery plant.
• Sweet Cherry (konorii x hellwiggii) Mark Jury hybrid. Highly fragrant, luscious big blooms in deep cherry pink with velvety foliage and busy growth. Released to celebrate 20 years of the Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival.


Sweet Vanilla - opens pink and fades to cream. Deliciously fragrant.

• Sweet Vanilla ({ leucogigas x lochiae} x Silken Shimmer). Mark Jury hybrid. Delicious fragrant big creamy trumpets with pink flush, flowering from a very young age. Compact, heavy growth. A garden friendly konori type and is proving to be a top performer.