Neepawa mourns loss of lily lover, festival founder

JILLIAN AUSTIN /BRANDON SUN Enlarge Image

A visitor enjoys lily festival Friday. Its founder died just hours before it got underway.

Barrie Strohman's flair for flora helped put Neepawa on the map as the lily capital of the world.

One of the founders of Neepawa's Lily Festival, Strohman, 79, died of cancer Friday, just hours before this year's festival got underway.

"I knew (the festival) would have to stay open, that we'd make do and get through it," his son, Nigel, said Sunday.

"This is his legacy -- people coming to enjoy the beauty of these lilies, and to continue on was what he would want."

The festival, started in 1997, attracts up to 12,000 people to Neepawa, where there are 2,000 named varieties of lilies in and around the western Manitoba town. "His work is a legacy that has affected gardens across Manitoba," festival chairman Ken Waddell said.

"The flower gardens of Manitoba have changed substantially in large part because of his work.

"He will always be missed and never replaced."

Strohman spent most of his life running his own construction business. He was the go-to guy for building homes and farms. But his love for lilies germinated long before that, said long-time friend Ivan Traill.

"He said it started as a kid," Traill said.

"One day he found a tiger lily and brought it home and said it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen."

What grew into a hobby turned into full-time work when Strohman retired, earning him national and international recognition.

After starting the Lily Nook with his son in 1995, Strohman developed thousands of his own unique strains of the flower, most of which are still developing, his son said.

His hybrid varieties of lilies have been sold as far away as Europe and even Brazil.

"He couldn't wait to see the next lily," Traill said. "'They always fool ya,' he said. He never knew what was coming, never knew what was the dominant gene in the lilies (he was hybridizing), and would end up with something he never expected at all."

Nigel Strohman said the loss is felt throughout the community.

"I've had a lot of people coming up to me at the festival saying they miss him," Nigel said.

"He was very kind-hearted. I never heard him say a bad word about anybody... ."

Strohman also leaves behind his wife, Joyce, 69, and three daughters, Natalie, Michele and Corrine.

matt.preprost@freepress.mb.ca