Invaluable Gene Pool Discovered

Written By Arden Delidais
Photographs by Kris Pruski

Here is the original article I wrote about Mr. Lee in January of 1994. It made the cover story of the Gardening in Alberta Magazine.

Lloyd Lee did not know he was lost but the research scientists at The Alberta Tree Nursery and Horticulture Centre (ATN&HC) in Edmonton are excited about their "find." Mr. Lee has an oasis of 3 to 4 acres of fruit trees and shrubs, the accomplishment of a lifelong love of horticulture. Fifteen years ago, at the age of 65, Mr. Lee gathered up his best material and "retired" to his experimental orchard.

Kris Pruski, a tissue culture specialist from ATN&HC was astounded with the discovery and remarked, "It is so valuable it it has no value." "The most amazing part," he adds, "is that for Mr. Lee - It is just a hobby!"

Incredibly, this site was found quite by accident. Kris was visiting a test orchard of sour cherries at Fort Assiniboine when the grower, Mr. John Popiel mentioned that Kris really should look at Mr. Lee's place. Mr. Pruski shook his head when recalling, "I have to take you there. You will be amazed. I was amazed."

After the initial discovery last summer, a steady stream of people travelled from the tree nursery to take a look. The administration came, took pictures, took inventory and tasted! Mr. Lees's collection includes 11 types of saskatoons, 120 types of apples, 50 different cherries, and an unknown number of pears. The tree nursery is moving Mr. Lee's orchard, through tissue culture method, to the tree nursery site. The material collected will be kept indefinitely by germplasm preservation. In layman's terms, they are making a library of his work and storing it in test tubes. They will dedicate 2 acres of orchard at the centre to field grow Mr. Lee's plants.

It is a concern of ATN&HC that Mr. Lee and his work be protected. Plant patents proved to be too expensive and they are now looking into a registration with COPF (Canadian Ornamental Plant Foundation) in Ottawa. Kris says, "Really, all Mr. Lee wants is his name on some of the plant material and in my personal opinion, he deserves recognition."

Due to financial constraints, ATN&HC will focus interest primarily on 2 species which Mr. Lee worked with - the saskatoon and the chokecherry. Outstanding in Mr. Lee's mind is one saskatoon he calls Lee #3 (a cross between Pembina and one of his own selections) which he describes as "not very seedy, very fleshy and having an intense saskatoony flavour, a real bouquet." The plant is dwarfish in the 5 to 6 foot range.

Mr. Lee was particularly interested in improving Northline and Thiesen saskatoons. Northline he described as a heavy yielding, firm berry which is easy to pick and won't crack in the rain. He believes the flavour is better than Smoky but it could be improved if it was more "saskatoony." He described Thiesen, as "a huge berry," but he wanted to improve its yield and restrict its vigor.

During the 1930s, Mr. Lee collected his own saskatoon root pieces when breaking land and he soon concluded that cultivation wasn't enough - selections had to be made. The late John Wallace "upped" his interest in 1944," when he gave him 3 saskatoon root sprouts. He collected material everywhere he went. He budded saskatoons on cotoneaster, hawthorn, and crabapple seedlings successfully. Mr. Lee cautions that the graft of saskatoon and apple separates quickly so the union must be covered by soil so that the saskatoon eventually roots on its own. He tried Mountain Ash but had poor results. He has 2 of Simonet's crosses of Mountain Ash and saskatoon. The resulting plants are "not a heck of a lot."  They have clusters like Mountain Ash but the fruit drops before ripening leaving little fruit.

Mr. Lee propagated saskatoons by softwood cuttings with bottom heat and no rooting hormones. Sometimes he had good success. He mentions they would go into dormancy, but not always. He always struck a few willows in the same tray with the saskatoons which he felt helped the rooting process.

With the chokecherries, Kris Pruski, likes a large fruited shrub with black coloured fruit and schubert leaf colour. Mr. Lee has named it "Robert," after Mr. Simonet. Mr. Simonet provided the original seed with the desirable characteristics of long racemes of (small) grape size fruit which became the source material for his crossing experiments. He has red, yellow and black chokes. The yellow choke originated from Boughen Nursery in the 1930s and he claims it makes an excellent crystal wine.

His breeding work has been going on for about 60 years. Once with a small group visiting the Research Station at Brooks, they were given 8 Mongolian cherries to sample. He whispered, "Save those pits!" He was pleased when the resulting cherries he grew turned out to be even better than the originals.

Mr. Lee mentions he has a very successful Nanking/Sandcherry cross. He took a Pincherry named Jumping Pound, (a cross from John Wallace) and crossed it with his best wild selection. The results - some seedlings 10 feet high with excellent 12 inch long racemes. In Mr. Lee's opinion, "They are the top size I've ever seen." He has an assortment of apples he has developed and mentions #2A - a large 4 inch, yellow apple. Asked if it was a good eating apple, he nonchalantly replied, "Oh, I suppose, something like the golden delicious you buy in the store." For his apple rootstock and stembuilder, he uses a cross of his own between Dolgo and Columbia.

The Tissue Culture Lab at ATN&HC is presently working on developing a technology for micropropagation of the above cherries (Mongolian, chokes, nanking, and pin) and several apples. Mr. Lee remarked that, "These tissue culture guys are all excited. I guess that's what I'd call it. You know, I never advertised it or anything. I was just having fun."

And what a man. Mr. Lee is 80 years old and as sharp as can be. Well into the interview, I was startled to realize that Mr. Lee is missing his left hand. Tricky business budding and grafting; it takes a fine knife. He grins. He always had a hard time acquiring scion wood because others felt "that damn fool can't do anything anyways." Mr. Lee lost his hand in an accident when he was 21 years old. He explained how he positions a pair of vise grips where his left hand should be and proceeds. Quite simple he said and he amiably demonstrated using my pen for a tree stock.

Mr. Lee has been involved in the horticultural trade virtually all his life. He operated a nursery and ran a greenhouse in Camp Creek in 1936. 10 years later he moved his family of 4, 2 boys and 2 girls, to Mellowdale (6 miles from Barrhead) His wife ran the florist shop in Barrhead and their greenhouse supplied the cut flowers such as carnations, chrysanthemums and snapdragons.  The family grew bedding out plants, apple trees and raised gladiolus by the acre for the wholesale market. The glads were shipped by bus to Edmonton and he cross pollinated them to develop glads that would transport better and to also obtain unusual flower color and shape. He had several good looking lines which have never been registered. He truck farmed watermelons, muskmelon and cucumbers. (8-12 ton a year) It might be easier to mention the items he hasn't grown. His wife passed away January 10, 1982. She enjoyed the flowers and the design work. The son, Bob, runs the florist shop in Barrhead today.

Saskatoons and apples are Mr. Lee's "pet" interests, but he has many. He really enjoys birds and breeds his own chickens which run in the orchard. He plans to try turkeys. "They are terrific insect catchers, especially grasshoppers." But he laughs and adds he is afraid they may do too good a job and eat everything! He is going to find out, however.

He showed me a picture of 4 geese he adopted one year. "They are better than pups!" he remarked. The geese followed him down the rows as he worked and would grab the budding rubbers and pull. He said it was very comical. They chased the dog and figured they should follow Mr. Lee into the house. They flew away in August. He always thought they would return someday but they never did.

Everything is organically grown on his farm. He admits that he has a few patches of Canada Thistle that are escaping him. He hastried to cut them off with a sickle at different times of the moon but is afraid he may have to resort to a touch of Roundup. He can dig out perennial sow thistle by hand and over come it.

Recently, Mr. Lee spent 2 long days, March 19 and 20th at the Edmonton Agricom taking in a Saskatoon Production Workshop hosted by the Fruit Growers Society of Alberta. His son Bill, wasn't sure Mr. Lee could handle two days but the pair were back the next day and Mr. Lee's attention and interest was remarkable. Needless to say, The Fruit Growers Society of Alberta was tickled and honoured to have Mr. Lee and his son join the association. It was very fitting and drew genuine applause when Mr. Lee won the gift of honey donated by the Honey Growers Association.

Mr. Lee's positive, fresh attitude surfaces in conversation continually. He had arthritis so bad when he was 65 that he couldn't hold a set of pruning shears. "The new aches replace the old aches!" He forged ahead anyway.

Reflecting on the potential of the saskatoon industry, Mr. Lee comments, "If they keep looking for a better plant to capitalize on the saskatoon taste, there is no limit to what they could sell. If they can sell those bland blueberries the way they do,we can beat that by a mile!"

Just an update - Mr. Lee is 85 now, with another birthday coming soon! His mind is still sharp and he is forever interested in the advance of horticulture. He lives and tends his orchard on the farm. October 15th,1998, he marched proudly behind the pipers and joined in the gala awards ceremony held at the Edmonton Inn which inducted him into the Alberta Agricultural Hall of Fame.