Weed Ladies craft floral designs for fall sale

Kathy Gleason walks through a fenced-in garden plot on the grounds of Naper Settlement, pointing out magenta strawflowers, bright red gomphrena, sunflowers and brilliant blue salvia buds standing tall like colorful sentinels against a lush background of green foliage.

"They last forever and they keep their color," Gleason says.

Exactly the qualities Gleason and the rest of the Weed Ladies value in the plants they chose for the garden on the grounds of Naperville's museum village. The rainbow of flora - and the lilies and Japanese lantern flowers with orange seed-filled pods that grow nearby - provides much of the supplies for the dried floral arrangements the Weed Ladies make and sell to help support the settlement.

"Kay Stephens, an original Weed Lady, died recently. She left us money to do the gardens," Gleason said of the plot a few hundred feet from the Daniels House, across from the Copenhagen Schoolhouse on the west end of the grounds.

"We grow a variety of flowers to dry and then we'll sell them in bouquets."

The volunteer Weed Ladies craft seasonal arrangements and will show a profusion of amber, gold and russet in planters, wreaths and bouquets during the annual Fall Floral Design Sale from Thursday to Sunday, Sept. 10 to 13, at the settlement, 523 S. Webster St., Naperville.

"We design all sorts of arrangements, table arrangements, wreaths, swags that can go on doors," Weed Lady Barb Smart said. "The prices are very reasonable."

The volunteer group of artisans meets regularly in the Daniels House, an 1852 two-story Greek revival house that served as home and clinic for Dr. Hamilton C. Daniels in the city's early days. These days, the building houses Weed Ladies workshops.

"We do our work here and we sell from here now," said Smart, who has been with the group since 1992.

Despite the Weed Ladies' on-site garden - and even the group's name - club members have noticed a trend, a change that says more about the development of the city than about customer's tastes or the crafters' preferences. More and more, the Weed Ladies are using silk flowers in their pieces.

Weeds and flowers suitable for drying have become less plentiful, Smart said, as land development has reduced the local plant stock.

"The peppergrass, pennyroyal, cattails, bittersweet, yarrow - these are all things that are hard to find now," she said. "These are all wild. The fields where we used to get them, they're all houses."

Silk flowers have filled in the gaps nicely, she said.

"Years ago, you couldn't get the nice silks you can get now," she said.

Smart said the Weed Ladies use planter pots, buckets, pails, even pieces of birchwood to serve as bases for their artwork.

"We're always on the lookout for unusual containers," she said, adding that the 15-member volunteer group regularly scours flea markets and garage sales for distinctive planters.

While the shelves and tables at the Daniels House are spilling over with a wide selection of ready-to-go pieces, the Weed Ladies will craft special pieces on request.

"We do custom orders," Smart said. "If someone has a container they want an arrangement in, we ask them to look at our materials and colors."

Customers also may request that an arrangement be altered, she said.

"We'll tweak the arrangements, but we do charge for making changes," she said, adding that the fee is $5.

Proceeds from the sale benefit the education and preservation initiatives at Naper Settlement, said Donna DeFalco, settlement marketing and sales representative.

If you go

What: Weed Ladies Fall Floral Design Sale

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 10 to 12; 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 13

Where: Naper Settlement, 523 S. Webster St., Naperville

Admission: Free

Info: napersettlement.org and (630) 305-5289