Rhododendron facetum 2014/006 DJHMV#8-161 at RSBG
Late blooming (late July) spectacular red from North Vietnam.
"I am now calling that straight up facetum. Once we realized that most if not all of the N vietnam material had migrated down from the east Himalaya/western Yunnan (Cangshan, etc.) region via the Red River it was obvious these were mostly just the vietnam forms of familiar species further north. The awesome thing about this is that the Vietnam forms are remarkably hardier, even though they are technically in or close to the tropics. I have a whole lecture just on that bit, really interesting (at least to me). For example, we cannot do facetum from western Yunnan at all, freezes out most years. The one you are showing from N Vietnam has been outside for many years with no cold damage whatsoever, go figure." -Steve Hootman, Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden