5 minute read
The Lily Man
by: KArin Melberg sChwier Photos: AMy sChiller
Brightening Corners, Touching Hearts
Peter Geres never met a bulb he didn’t like.
It’s been 17 years since his daughter Koreen’s corner lot was nothing but grass. But since 2004, it’s evolved into a destination location. McKinnon and Sixth Street East is a piece of property now famous for Peter’s dazzling annual display of over 50 varieties of lily. He’s won numerous awards, but the smiles from passersby make him the most proud. Always willing to dispense a little wisdom about all things Martagon, Pseudolirium, Liriotypus, Archelirion and more, Peter keeps an eye out for others who have the bug, always hoping for a few converts.
Creating Converts
“When the yard is really looking good, some people drive by slowly. Some people stop in the street. When families come to look, I always make sure the children leave with a stem so they can appreciate the lily,” says Peter, who turned 92 in June. “That’s how you get them started on growing their own.”
Photos Credit: Karin Melberg Schwier
Darren Miller and Chelsea Smith brought children Leif and Nadia by to admire the colourful corner. Peter was quick to give each child a stem to take home.
It’s not only the kids who get the bug; Peter counts many lily enthusiasts among the nursing staff at Extendicare where his wife lived. He’d take her bouquets on his regular visits, and ended up handing out a lot of his know-how to her caregivers.
Curb Appeal
Peter was born in Central Butte. His parents farmed, but allergies led Peter to become a welder. Carla was a Neilburg farmgirl. They married and lived in Neilburg for 48 years. Carla moved to a Saskatoon care home in 2002, and after two years of commuting to see her, Koreen and Peter agreed the long drive was getting pretty old. A few long stays turned into a permanent arrangement, and daughter Koreen welcomed her father into her Saskatoon home permanently. One of his first “tinkering” jobs was to take up a bit of lawn to plant some irises and lilies.
“We had a few lilies in Neilburg, and we always liked the look of them,” says Peter. “My wife liked begonias, and dahlias were her favourite.” Carla came to her daughter’s home in the beginning to see his floral handiwork, and Peter never failed to take bouquets when he visited.
Soon more and more of the sod on Koreen’s corner lot disappeared, which was fine with her. Gardening was something she enjoyed doing with her dad. She weeded; he hated the job when he was a child on the farm so she took over the task. He looked after preparing the beds, composting, fertilizing and tending his prize-winners.
He doesn’t really have a favourite, though he likes to point out the ones that will catch a judge’s eye in competition.
“It’s really the whole picture, all of them together that looks so nice,” he says as he surveys the talls and
shorts, the shock of colours, the deep hues and pastels, the sprinkling of what looks like cinnamon on some, the upturned faces and the downward gaze of other blossoms.
Planting Seeds
Koreen, a teacher, says her father always had a knack for math and science. He wanted to stay in school even though he was unable to attend beyond grade eight. He was needed to help on the farm. Knowing his love of learning, Koreen recruited him to share his passion for horticulture with her students.
“Dad came to my class at Mount Royal for three years,” says Koreen. “He taught my English as an Additional Language (EAL) students, the life skills students, and some grade nine kids how to propagate geraniums. Our end of the school was jam-packed with yogurt containers of cuttings. It was a fun way to teach science and English.”
Students wrote about Peter’s visit and what they learned. They practiced future and past tenses, Koreen says, “and added words like ‘rooting hormone’ to their vocabulary.”
Fame and Fortune
Peter likes to putter, wandering through to see what’s what as the season progresses, moving one plant to a better location, maybe a short one to a spot out of the shadow of a tall one. Herbs like ground-cover thyme and pussytoes spill out like a carpet, and there are vegetables, haskaps, sunflowers, geraniums, rudbeckia, poppies and delphiniums that fill in here and there for variety.
A barn-style birdhouse offers a perch. Peter is often accompanied on his
Peter is always accompanied by Booster, a faithful companion.
rounds by Boo (short for Booster), his English bulldog who prefers to keep his paws on the small bit remaining grass and angles for a tummy rub when Peter sits down for a rest.
In the fall, daughter Koreen and Peter’s niece Glenna help him thin out the crop. Hundreds of brown paper lunch bags with one or two bulbs are labelled and lily fans come by to purchase for their own up-and-coming plots. He hands out free advice with each sale. Last fall, he raised $800 for the Canadian Prairie Lily Society’s horticulture scholarship.
Known in the neighbourhood for the annual colourful display and for his awards, Peter’s fame took off last season when he was interviewed by media in search of a feel-good story. The number of rubberneckers increased tenfold after the stories about “The Lily Man” hit local and national news. Peter, a quiet man, didn’t mind because the attention, he said, was on the lilies.
“I like to see other people enjoying them,” he says. “And it gives people a little lift, you know, when they drive up or walk by to appreciate what we’ve done here.”
Karin Melberg Schwier
LILy TIPS And TrouBLemAkerS
Lilies like to sink their toes into rich compost and gardeners can’t water too much when they’re first planted. “Even if it’s raining when you plant your bulbs,” Peter advises, “you should still water them.” The Canadian Prairie Lily Society website has all the information for lily newbies about soil, fertilizer, planting depth for various bulbs and how to grow healthy, sturdy lilies. He also refers people to the website for instructions on the dreaded Lily Beetle.
https://lilybeetletracker.weebly.com
Best Red Lily Stem 2011 Best Species Lily 2016 Grand Champion Lily Stem 2016 Reserve Champion Lily Stem 2017 Best Red Lily Stem 2017 Best Red Lily 2018 Best Canadian Hybrid 2019. The 2020 competition was cancelled due to COVID, so Peter passed out stems to admirers who stopped to appreciate the home show.
