Naperville Garden Club Celebrates 90 years

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One by one members from the Naperville Garden Club filed out of a trolley as they visited members’ houses to see their gardens.

“The wonderful thing about gardening is everyone’s yard is a little bit different and they all have a different approach to what they want to do. And it’s just a lot of fun to see stuff and to share,” said club president Marilyn Schweitzer.

History Of Naperville Garden Club

The shared passion for gardens comes with a shared history. The club actually started as a committee with the Naperville Woman’s Club in the late 1920’s.

“And in 1929 they decided, this group of women who loved gardening, too split from the Naperville Woman’s Club and actually form the Naperville Garden Club,” said club member and historian Bonnie Bula.

And that love for gardening still lives strong today, as members of the garden club meet once a month to arrange flower decorations.

Garden Club More Than Just a Group

The long hours spent together and frequent home visits have turned the group into more than just a club.

“We support each other not only just in gardening but through other life changing events,” said club vice president Diane Greenawalt. “One of the members home burned and we helped supply things to their home and to help them just as any other support group [would].”

Cup Of Cheer

The group also supports the community through scholarships funded by their annual cup of cheer fundraiser. That event features a tour of area homes, decorated for the holidays. So it was only fitting that to celebrate their 90th anniversary, the group took a tour of their own. The celebration included a special serenade.

“He’s playing a shakuhachi. It’s a Japanese bamboo flute with five holes,” said Schweitzer about her husband. “And it’s used for Japanese classical music, but also traditional Buddhist meditation music.”

The music is meant to imitate nature- the very thing the garden club has nurtured since their roots… and continues to grow into their future.

Naperville News 17’s Christian Canizal reports.