Lily Man brings beauty to Saskatoon neighbourhood
‘Sometimes people stop the cars in the middle of the street,' daughter says
Peter Geres, the 91-year-old also known as the Lily Man, is not tired of grabbing the shovel to work in the yard at the home he and his daughter share in Saskatoon, or of giving gardening advice to those admiring it.
The Saskatoon senior and his daughter, Koreen Geres, tend to about 50 varieties of lilies in all kinds of colours. Some of them are award-winners.
When he moved to Saskatoon 16 years ago, his daughter's front yard looked completely different.
"It was all grass," Peter said.
Now Koreen's house has become a kind of attraction in the neighbourhood.
"A lot of people say, 'let's go see the Lily Man,'" Koreen said.
"Yesterday it was constant. There were people here all day long to look at the lilies. So people drive by, they stop. They yell when they drive by. They get out of their cars. Sometimes people stop the cars in the middle of the street and jump out."
Most of the flowers in their garden — not all of them are lilies — have little labels so people on the street can read them.
"Anything that I know I learned along the way," said Peter, who loves to pass his knowledge to anybody who looks for gardening help.
Family teamwork
Before living in Saskatoon, the Lily Man resided in Neilburg, about 100 km west of North Battleford. After his wife had to move into a care home in Saskatoon he followed her to the city and moved in with his daughter.
"She had a bunch of work to do in her house," Peter said.
"So I asked her if it was okay if I stayed here until we got this work done. And we have never got the work done yet. Sixteen years later."
Daughter and father work as a team keeping their colourful front yard in good shape. Koreen said she does the bending to pick the weeds and her father digs the lilies.
"We work together, it's quite fun actually," Koreen said.
Special beauty
The Saskatoon senior was not always a gardening fan. As a child he and his sister had to weed their family garden.
"That was a terrible job," Peter said with a chuckle.
Today he appreciates the opportunity to spend time in the yard.
"Each one [lily] has its own special beauty when you look at them," Peter said.
"I really enjoy being out here. It gives me something to do, especially this year, when people can't get out and about and do most of the things that they regularly do."
Sharing love for gardening
Besides bringing joy to their neighbourhood, Peter has encouraged other people to love gardening, said his daughter.
Peter would go to his wife's nursing home at least once a day to visit her.
"He used to start 500 tomato plants and take them to the staff at Extendicare, and a lot of the people started gardening," Koreen said.
When Koreen worked at Mount Royal Collegiate, her dad came in for several years to help the students with their gardening project, showing them how to start geraniums.
"There were probably three or four classes involved and they all got to go home with a geranium at Mother's Day."
While the family loves to share the beauty of their garden with others, they already have future plans for some of their lilies. They want to dig out some of the bulbs and donate them to the Canadian Prairie Lily Society or sell them to people and then donate the money.
Even though Peter has won several prizes for his flowers over the years, he doesn't call himself an expert.
"I'm learning every day," he said. "If I don't learn something new every day, it's a bad day."