Ed Schellenberg, will be
remembered in a very special way thanks to long-time friend
Pam Erikson who unveiled a new flower that will bear his
name.
The 54-year-old Abbotsford gas fitter was gunned down along
with five other people in a Surrey penthouse last October.
Schellenberg was described as a beloved father, husband,
and member of his Baptist congregation.
He was on site working, and ended up being in the wrong
place at the wrong time - an innocent bystander caught in
the line of fire.
Erikson, operator of Erikson's Daylily Gardens in North
Otter, has a breeding program, and is introducing four new
daylilies to the world market this week, including one aptly
named Ed Schellenberg's Bromley Splendor.
It's "named for a dear friend who passed away tragically
last year," she explained. "He just loved gardening...
now, he'll live on forever in the garden."
Even though Erikson knew Schellenberg's family for many
years, because she grows many of her wholesale flowers on
his sister-in-law's 30-acre farm in Fort Langley, it wasn't
until a few years back that she actually met him.
He had come to repair her broken furnace.
"He was just such a sweet man," Erikson said,
noting that he and his wife Lois subsequently returned to
visit the nursery and gardens on a few occasions.
Some people dropped off cards to his grieving family, and
Erikson, too, wanted to do something to let the Schellenberg
family know she cared.
Considering she'd done a few tribute flowers in the past,
and given Schellenberg's passion for the plants, she chose
to name a new two-toned blossom after the man.
"He was truly a wonderful, caring man, and his death
leaves a void for all those who knew and loved him,"
Erikson said.
"We are honoured to have named this plant for him,"
she said, "with all proceeds raised from the sale of
this plant to be donated to his children."
It was one of four new flowers this long-time daylily the
grower has unveiled this spring. She's chosen to name each
after a very special person or cause.
In addition to the Schellenberg bloom, she's named one Presence
of Absence, and said all monies raised from the sale of
that plant will be donated to the Vancouver AIDS Memorial
Foundation, a society dedicated to developing and maintaining
a memorial for those lost to HIV/AIDS, as well as their
caregivers, who eased their passing and live with the presence
of their absence.
Another tribute plant has been named Shirley Walkley, in
honour of Erikson's 75-year-old mother, "one of the
strongest women she has ever known."
The last of the flowering perennials is the I've Crossed
to the Dark Side daylily.
With a very dark black-purple bloom it was named, tongue-in-cheek,
for all those who [like Erikson herself] have turned 50
this year, "and learned to take hot flashes and mood
swings in stride, with a little help from tequila and chocolate,"
she said
The Erikson family began opening their one-acre garden back
in 1993, even allowing some of the visitors to tour their
private gardens during peak blooming season in July.
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