OK--this has been cut and pasted from a much longer article on the Pacific Bulb Society members discussion group on predominantly Zeph's, Hab's, and Cooperia's early breeding and hybridization. It refers a great deal to Thad Howard who has been the leading researcher and guru (in mine and many other people's opinion) about bulbs in zones 8-9. He lived and worked in San Antonio and identified over 40 species of rain lilies. Rhodophiala bifida came up in the middle of this rather long discussion. I have compressed various entries into a somewhat cohesive reading and left out chromosome #'s and other such stuff and kept to the history. Any spelling and grammer errors are purely my own and not the original author's--I am quite sure--lol Here goes:
In the section on German influence it merely mentions his name (and several others) as important for their introduction of several taxa, including Rhodophiala bifida. Interesting, but I hope to find out more
details.
When Thad Howard began collecting rain lilies in San Antonio during
the early 1950s, the Zephyranthes world was still rather small. His
garden included the "old" species described above and several of the
wild rain lilies of South Texas. The only hybridizing that had been
done with the group had taken place in faraway India.
Early in the century Sydney Percy Lancaster, secretary of the
Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India, crossed sevveral
rain lilies into a strain known as x Cooperanthes. These were hybrids
of Z. grandiflora, Z. citrina, and a species obtained from a German
plant collector in Austin, Texas. In deference to this source, a Mr.
Peter Henry Oberwetter, Lancaster referred to these bulbs in his
notes as "Cooperia Oberwetterii."
Oberwetter's activities will be discussed further in a later entry.
For now, what merits attentions is the essential direction of
Lancaster's hybridizing. He had united the colorful tropical species
of Zephyranthes with a fragrant, hardy rain lily from central Texas.
The resulting offspring grew robustly and displayed a range of warm
pastel colors.
Dr. Howard tried importing Lancaster's crosses from India to Texas.
The bulbs were shipped but never arrived, and Howard resolved to make
his own hybrids from scratch. Along with breeding, dedicated
collecting in Texas and Mexico soon expanded his rain lily garden to
undreamed-of proportions.
The vigorous heirloom strain of Rhodophiala seems to be of true
Southern origin, for it is unknown to gardeners in Argentina, where
the bulbs are native. Although oxblood lilies are distributed widely
though the South, they are especially common in the old Germanic
communities of central Texas. Their concentration centers on Austin.
During the 1840s central Texas attracted immigrants from southern and
western Germany, who came to the fledgling republic in search of
political and intellectual freedom. Many were persons of romantic
sensibility, with a love for nature and yearnings for an honest,
agricultural life. They were captivated by the rugged, oak-covered
hills and clear-flowing springs of the new land.
One among them, Peter Henry Oberwetter, took a special interest in
the plants growing on his farm near Comfort, Texas. Oberwetter began
collecting the wild rain lilies he found on the hills, and he sent
them through the mail to gardeners around the world. During the Civil
War, he moved south into Mexico (many German colonists sided with the
North during this conflict, and left Texas to avoid persecution).
While in Mexico Oberwetter continued to collect and export bulbs;
when the war ended, he moved to Austin, where he lived until about
1915.
During this period Oberwetter introduced oxblood lilies to America,
while he sent the native giant prairie lily, Zephyranthes drummondii,
around the world. As he cultivated bulbs in Austin, he must have
discovered and selected the vigorous Rhodophiala strain we now enjoy.
His legacy lives on in the oxblood lilies flowering each autumn in
countless dooryard gardens throughout the South.
Debbie
