Fred Tarlton

Edmonton, Alberta
1910-2013

Lived retirement years in St. Albert, Alberta. Came to Canada from England when he was three. RCAF navigator 1942-1945, followed by a long career as an educator and administrator in Alberta schools.

An eager, self-educator, he met George Bugnet who was to help him with his French but as a side bonus, awakened an interest in horticulture and plant breeding. His first experience with martagons began in 1953 when he got his first martagon var. album seed from NALS/Czechoslovakia) but he had other lilies in his garden beginning in 1947 when he rescued L. philadelphicum bulbs that were going to be destroyed on a building site.

He eventually wrote articles on every species lily he had grown from seed that were proven hardy in Alberta. First Alberta hybridizer to contribute significantly to martagon hybridizing and possibly the first Albertan to hybridize lilies. He went on to mentor other gardeners who held an interest in lilies. One writer wrote ”… he became to martagons what Johnny Appleseed became to apples.” (Fox, Eugene, “A Right Time and Place for Martagons’; www.thefreelibrary. com) He aimed to produce martagons which consistently had secondary buds. Worked with Asiatics and trumpets to some degree as well. Knowledgeable and sought-after speaker. Had a specific way of starting martagon seed in jars that became known as “The Tarlton Method”. Upon selling his rural property in c.1993, much of his material went to the commercial fields of Marvin Joslin at Spruce Grove, Alberta.

Awards and Recognition:

  1. Founding member of the Alberta Regional Lily Society and received the Mentor Award from the same society in 1995 for promoting lilies in the region
  2. Harold F. Comber Award NALS 1977
  3. Claude Shride Award NALS 1977 for martagon var album
  4. David Griffiths Award NALS 1977
  5. Honorary Life Membership in the Alberta Horticultural Society 1982
  6. E.H. Wilson Award NALS 2001
  7. NALS Regional Award 2007
  8. Edmonton Horticultural Society Trophy for a lifetime of horticultural achievement 2009

ARLS awarded him for “contributions to the genus lilium” at his 100 year life marker 2010

Honorary life memberships in the ARLS and the NALS (1995) as well as Honorary Director of CPLS.

There is a martagon lily named ‘Fred Tarlton’ bred by Robert Erskine. “It seems to me that the biggest dividend that comes from growing lilies is not the lilies you grow and see or the prizes you win but the people you meet and the friends you make”. (from article “Lilies and Me’; NALS Quarterly, Dec.1991).

Excerpted from “Canadian Lily Hybridizers and Their Lilies – A Working Garden Reference” by Leanne Dowd
Photo courtesy of Shauna Willoughby