As with all the collections within the Botanic Gardens and Constructed Wetlands, the Alberta Bred Lily Collection offers an invaluable resource to all gardeners - beginners, advanced, lily collectors and those looking to add their first lily to their gardens.
Seeing these plants in a garden setting, in bloom, carefully labelled with their names, enables gardeners to take photos and make wish lists. Each summer the College collaborates with the Alberta Regional Lily Society to carry out research on Alberta bred lilies. Their support and leadership in this area is invaluable.
The Valley K Lily Ranch has information on Canadian lily breeders, including those from Alberta. Historically Alberta lily hybridizers have lived and hybridized from about Red Deer/Rocky Mountain House north to the Edmonton Region. Read the Hybridizing Lilies in Alberta article written by Terry Willoughby, Shaun Willoughby and Bill Mackay, previous published in the Edmonton Horticultural Society's Centennial Issue - A Century of Gardening in Edmonton.
One breeder of note is Fred Fellner. Born in 1931 on a farm near Vermillion, Alberta, Fred Fellner has been recognized as a breeder of some of the finest lilies in the world. With over a hundred lilies registered, his plants are bred to exhibit drought and disease resistance, winter hardiness, high bud count, and brilliant, fade-resistant colour, all of which are important factors in growing lilies in the sometimes harsh Alberta environment. To read more about Fred Fellner see A Lifetime of Lilies (from plantlilies.ca) and Robert Simonet and the 'Rescued Lilies' by Fred Fellner (Manitoba Regional Lily Society).
