** THE HYBRID EPIPHYLLUM **
*** WITH DOUBLE FLOWERS ***
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CHAPTER 1 (pages 1 to 3)
Rémy's Epiphyllum .
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Page 1 / 8 of the article.
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My interest in the history of hybrid Epiphyllum with double flowers started when I read a message from Rémy, a Swiss friend, collector of Epiphyllum, on the Epifrance forum, who wondered about the identification of the one of his plants.
Thus, Rémy Wuarin wrote in September 2010 on Epifrance:
“Here is a pink Epi with double flowers of medium size, flowers with ruby-purplish tint, it's a real jewel.I received it (in the form of a cutting) 6 years ago from an elderly person, who had had it in any case for 25 years!
According to what I see on Epifrance, the full flowers are rare, or out of fashion.
As for all my Epiphyllum, its name is unfortunately unknown to me.”
Photo and collection: Rémy Wuarin.
A member of the forum made the following remark in connection with Epiphyllum with double flowers: “They are very few and sometimes difficult to cultivate, this is why one sees little of them. They are however so beautiful.”
An intense mail exchange followed in order to try to specify the origin of the plant, the place and the date as well. There were also exchanges of cuttings.
Rémy specified us that he had received his cutting from a friend, Mrs. Von S., a Swiss woman married before the war to a German man native of Silesia, who fled Germany because of the arrival of the Russians, and who ended up returning to Switzerland. Then, Rémy imagined Mrs. Von S.et her husband hurriedly fleeing, their lives endangered, with an Epiphyllum.
A few days later, this assumption appeared improbable to him, as to several members of the forum. Is it plausible to flee despite your life being in danger while preciously preserving with them an Epiphyllum cutting? I let you think over the subject.
Rémy renewed contact with the servant of Mrs. Von S., the latter having then passed away for a few years.
The servant told him that the plant had been given to Mrs. Von S. by an Italian friend, Mrs. R.
Rémy contacted Mrs. R. who confirmed that the plant was in her possession in her villa in Turin, and had been in flowers during World War II. The plant was cultivated in plant containers, under orange trees.
Assuming this dating as accurate, the plant had been existing in Italy between 1939 and 1945.
And this is far from being a detail as we will see it.
But now it is time to show you the plant and its flowers, obtained in 2015 and 2016 in Rémy’s, Etienne’s and my collections.
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