By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — Summer Fridays mean a lot to many people: the end of the work week, a chance to get outside, or the start of a vacation. 

For some Westport residents, summer Fridays also mean something else: a chance to create or to enjoy another seasonal flower arrangement displayed somewhere in town. 

“#FridayFlowers,” a program of the Westport Garden Club, has a threefold purpose during the pandemic, according to Pat Nave, the club’s president. The program helps keep garden club members connected; highlights different service areas in the community, and especially serves “to lift the spirit of the town,” she said. 

Each Friday since May, two garden club members get to choose where a floral arrangement will be delivered that week, peruse members’ gardens to gather blossoms, and put together a pot or barrel of flowers for the recipients to enjoy. 

Floral tributes for lifeguards, firefighters

On Friday, Aug. 20, Elise Meyer and Orna Stern chose the lifeguard station at Compo Beach. Their arrangement was overflowing with asters, hydrangeas, anemones and sunflowers. After they finished setting up the arrangement, the women thanked the gathered lifeguards for their service to the town. 

Last year, club member Lori Meinke honored her father and grandfather, who were firefighters, by choosing the Westport Fire Station to receive a Friday Flowers arrangement. This week, the last this summer, the Friday Flowers display will be in Saugatuck.

The community has reacted positively to the weekly arrangements that appear throughout the summer, according to the club president. When the club placed an arrangement at the entrance to Longshore Park, for example, cars were honking and people waving as they passed by, she said. “They were saying, ‘We love Friday Flowers.’ We really feel that the community appreciates it.”

Deep community roots

The Westport Garden Club was established in 1924, when the members wore white gloves and had their gardeners do the work, Nave said.

The club currently has about 50 members whose motto is “Hands in the dirt,” and they work hard to beautify, redesign and maintain many places in town. These sites include gardens at Earthplace, Grace K. Salmon Park on Imperial Avenue, the marina and a garden at Weston Road and Cross Highway. They focus on making the garden spots pollinator friendly.

‘We know we make things better’

The club meets monthly all year long, and most meetings are open to the public. The group is known for its large plant sale every year, where only perennials are sold so that Westport gardens continue to blossom for years to come. 

This year, the club held a plant sale both outside and online, bringing members together who had met only virtually for most of the year and providing contactless purchase and delivery for those who preferred it. The club attracted several new members this year, partly because gardening became more popular when people were forced to isolate, Nave said.

Club members see themselves as stewards of the environment, said Meyer, who is chairman of the club’s programming committee. She called fellow members “plant geeks,” who simply enjoy gardening and spending time with other gardeners.

“We’re not political, we’re not controversial, we make people feel good,” said member Martha Siderowf, known as Topsy. “We know we make things better.”