Fred Fellner

Vermillion, Alberta
1931-2022

Farmer until retirement in 2003 and was able to focus full-time on his passion, lilies. His horticultural interests began with trees and perennials (which he grew out and offered for sale) and eventually turned to lilies. He acquired some Asiatic hybrids c.1972 from R. Simonet, who was going to plow them under, and started hybridizing in 1973-74. Fellner eventually named and registered some of these lilies (‘Sally JoAnn; ‘Dori Jo; ‘Robert Simonet; ‘Lily Simonet; and Kimberly Ann’) as well as used this stock in his own breeding efforts with Asiatics. Stated primary goal – to produce beautiful, hardy, drought and disease resistant lilies with a focus on high bud counts and brilliant, fade­ resistant colour.

Owner of Parkland Lil­ies. Fred wrote a fabulous and detailed article about his history and hybridizing goals and efforts in the North American Lily Society (NALS) Quarterly Bulletin, June, 2011, p. 12-18 called “Lily Personalities of the World: Fred Fellner, Vermillion, Alberta’. Received the Centennial Gold Medal from the Alberta Horticultural Association 1989. Recipient of the E. H. Wilson Award NALS 1995. The Alberta Horticultural Association recognized him for “Excellence in Lily Breeding” in 2003. What a marvelous sight that was tens of thousands of vigorous up facing lilies blooming over a huge acreage.
“Nothing had prepared me for the size and the impact of the color. What an inspiration to continue with lilies”. (Comment by Eugene Fox after his first visit to Fellner’s lily fields in the late 1970s) (NALS Yearbook, 1994, p. 54).

Olds College in Olds, Alberta has a Fred Fellner lily bed as part of its Botanic Gardens and Constructed Wetlands which was developed in 2010 as a tribute to Fred and as a display of the beauty he has created over the years.

Excerpted from “Canadian Lily Hybridizers and Their Lilies – A Working Garden Reference” by Leanne Dowd