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As we sped along I managed to spy some strange seed pods. They were large ovoid heads with porcupine-like quills sticking out in all directions. I hoped that my daughter would know the name of these unusual pods.

Soon after my arrival I brought up the subject of the plant with the spiny heads. Eileene, my daughter, said, "Why yes, Mom, I know what they are and if you promise not to tell the folks back home I'll show you some." She then got a stack of boxes and opened them one by one. "See," she said, "I have prepared my handmade Christmas gifts a little ahead of time this year." A strikingly brightly painted pod bouquet lay nestled on a bed of crumpled tissue paper. The most attractive spike was the one which I had spied along the road.

"This is the one you asked me about," my daughter said. "It is teasel and you will notice that the spines have tiny hooks on the ends. I have been told that the heads are gathered and set in frames and are used in making broadcloth material. These hooks catch and pull away the loose particles of wool."

Many tasks such as flower, fruit, and vegetable growing and selling occupied my spare time for several years after my chance introduction to weed-craft. However, the desire to experiment with weed painting never left me. The time came five years ago when we sold part of our tract, giving me some extra time. I used my daughter's methods and added some of my own and was soon plunged into my present hobby.

AS SOON as I create some new hobby article I become an old busybody and hie myself to my relatives and neighbors to show it to them. Of course they give praise—genuine or otherwise—and pep me up to continue my craft. I find myself plunging deeper and deeper until my home is overflowing with my hobby products. Then I know that I must dispose of them in some way. Such was the result of my weed painting mania.

Soon word reached the president of the Gateway Extension Club that I had a large number of painted weed bouquets. The club was preparing for its second annual hobby show in my home town, Loveland, Colorado. I was asked to display my various arrangements at the show. I have displayed three years by request. Each year I strive to excel my previous display, adding some new ones and repeating the most-asked-for items. I had a twenty-foot table last year. Since I greatly enjoy sharing my hobby I spend most of the two days at my table answering the visitor's questions about what, where, and how.

Many ask, "What are the names of these pods and grasses?" I shall use only the names common to our locality. The average person is not familiar with the botanical names which are the same all over the world. In contrast, the common names were given by the early settlers and have become established because of popular usage. These names usually refer to plant characteristics. The same weed may be known by six or seven different names across the continent. This was brought to mind when a garden club member showed a sample of teasel which had been sent to her by a friend in Idaho. She knew it only as "porcupine eggs." No more appropriate name could be coined. Some of the weeds which I use are milkweed, soap weed, evening star, rag weed, and cheat grass. In addition to these wildings I have added pods from my flower garden—tulip, poppy, saffron, nicandra, blue flax and just anything which has form and will not shatter or break too easily.

"Where may we find these?" is a question often asked. A wealth of material may be found when exploring the highways and byways. A friend brought me an armload of the much-desired teasel. She had found it when following a canyon trail near her cabin. This is the only patch as yet found in this locality. No section of the earth which supports vegetation is free of weeds. In most instances weeds are free to anyone who wishes to gather them. Of course if you brave the "No Trespassing" warning in the roadside cornfield there may be trouble temporarily. Should Farmer Jones spy you with your basket over your arm apparently raiding his roasting-ear patch his suspicions are justifiable. If you have had foresight enough to take a few of your prettified weeds with you, you are lucky. He will be convinced of your desire for that choice buffalo-burr just inside his fence. His temper will mellow and his lecture be forgotten as he helps you weed his fence line.

Again, "discretion is the better part of valor" when entering any of Uncle Sam's domains bearing the warning "Do Not Pick the Flowers."

Just as you reach for that attractively-podded prize of high-country vegetation you are likely to spy Mr. Forest Ranger coming from just around the bend. He may let you off with a gentle warning as he explains that hidden in that drab pod is the seed which will mother a beautiful columbine to delight visiting tourists and other national park visitors.

My enthusiasm knows no bounds when I go weed hunting. I become a veritable pack-rat, bringing home enough to fill every nook and cranny on my premises, including the garage, if my husband isn't looking.

THE FIRST task in making a bouquet is cleaning all the loose chaff, seeds, and unnecessary appendages from the material. Cup your gloved hand loosely around grass-type heads and ragweed. As you draw your hand upward over the stalk most of the unwanted bits will fall away. When gathering new material you should test its ability to hold its seed receptacles on the stalk. It is best to gather milkweed after the pods have opened and the parachute-type seeds have floated away. Pods such as tulip, poppy, etc., will release their hard seeds when shaken vigorously. Saffron is prepared by removing the orange petals which persist after the flower head is dry.

I use colored enamels, also white and aluminum. I use white to mix my pink and to lighten dark colors as desired. I use a one-inch brush and a water color brush. I mix my paint with a discarded teaspoon and dip a few spoonsful into a shallow bowl. Do not dip your brush into the can as some chaff may be clinging to it. Poppy, tulip, and such pods are best brush-painted. Hold each over the bowl as you paint both pod and stem. Lay on a paper plate to drain some before standing them in tin cans to dry. Strain leftover paint through a piece of nylon hose.

Saffron, teasel and such types which have parts difficult to reach with a brush require a different method. I hold these over the bowl also but spoon the enamel over them turning them so that all sides may be covered. Any spots missed may be touched up with the small brush. Milkweed is more attractive when painted two-tone. I usually silver the porous outside with aluminum enamel and use a color for the inside.

GRASSES HAVING a tough, slick texture silver and paint nicely. I thin the enamel with turpentine. This enables them to dry quickly as well as to help excess enamel drip off. An old piece of linoleum provides a good base on which to paint these grasses. Place the grass on this. Hold it by the stem and pull your paint-filled brush over the stem and up to the tip. Turn it over and repeat. Tap it a bit to remove excess paint and stand it in a can to dry. The weight of the heavy grass will make it arch gracefully.

Silvered babies'-breath, statice or sea lavender, and blue flax seed heads make beautiful filler. Pour aluminum enamel into a large bowl and dilute it slightly with turpentine. Take a spray of the filler, twirl it around in the enamel and spoon more over all parts not covered. Tap off excess enamel and put on crumpled bread paper to dry.

Ragweed, which I use in some of my arrangements, has a cottony growth in the axils of the branches and along the stems, which provides an ideal heavy filler. I use white casein wall paint. It is a powder. I mix it with water according to directions. I then dilute it some. I learned how much after dipping and drying a sample. A gallon bucketful makes enough for several arrangements. These may be piled on papers to dry as they do not stick together. Two dippings give added whiteness. I next prepare a medium thick starch and add a bit of casein powder to whiten it. Using an old brush and resting the material on papers, I dab as much of them as I can with the starch. I prepare a few and then sprinkle each with mica Christmas snow as I keep turning it over. I hold it over a paper to save the mica which sifts through. When I want some ice, blue filler I tint the casein paint with blue food coloring and also add blue to the starch. For gold filler I use buff casein paint, shellac instead of starch, and gold glitter instead of mica.

A DESCRIPTION of some of my show exhibit items may help others to prepare similar ones. I found that plainly printed name cards added distinction to my display. These were hand-printed on poster board. Tabs folded back at the ends held them upright. The name made it possible for interested persons to identify any arrangement when making inquiries by phone or mail. I decided the name after each piece was finished.

I believe that my snow-laden group elicited more admiration than any other. This group consisted of three different styled arrangements. A fifteen-inch square of white cardboard provided a base for each. In the center of each I anchored a pressed rabbit-wire holder. On one of these bases I built up a mound of snow-sprinkled ragweed fifteen by twenty inches and fourteen inches high. Many dainty blue, white, and silver pods and graceful grasses studded the white filler.

The fluffy white cotton which I piled on the base and pushed up against the flower holder resembled. fresh-driven snow when dusted with mica. I extended the cotton over the edges of the cardboard base. I then pulled it out thin in an irregular line when I placed it where it was to be used. This frosted arrangement accented by the sky-blue pods brought to mind the name Frosty Morn.

A similar arrangement was of all White material. I made very realistic snow by dissolving ½ cup of Ivory Snow in ½ cup warm water and then beating it to a heavy lather. Taking a spoonful at a time I threw it over most of the material. I then sprinkled it with mica snowflakes. The foam dried in a few hours. Winter Wonderland seemed the most appropriate name for this drifted snow centerpiece.

I used the blue ice filler for the remaining one. This one was sixteen inches in diameter and sixteen inches high. The filler was plentifully interspersed with gleaming silver pods. The light playing on this glittery silver and ice-blue piece fairly made one's fingers tingle. Hence the name, Icy Fingers.

Frosty Morn and Winter Wonderland were put at the back of my exhibit table. They were placed about twenty inches apart. Icy Fingers was centered in front of this space. This left some uncovered table top. Mica dusted snow filled all of this space nearly to the edge of the table. White paper tacked to the wall back of my table helped make this sparkling group a definite eye-catcher.

A mass of silver babies'-breath in a pin type holder provided filler for an Easter centerpiece. Pink, pastel blue, and silver pods and soft green grasses were added. I placed this in a small foil-covered bowl.

I CONTINUED making similar seasonal and special events arrangements. After I had used all of my material I realized that I had overlooked St. Valentine's Day. I just had to have something to display as this day has special significance for all Lovelanders. This came about several years ago when a romantic young swain discovered the name of our town on the map. If he just could have his valentine mailed from Cupid's home town his lady love could never doubt that he was in the land of love. He sent his message of devotion to Loveland to be remailed. Several papers noted the incident. Each year since then remailings mount. Soon our town became known as Sweetheart Town and now in addition to the Loveland, postmark a red Sweetheart Town cachet is stamped in the corner of each of the 50,000 valentines received yearly for remailing all over the United States and several foreign countries.

I decided to design a window display piece for a small gift shop. Some of their valentines interspersed with envelopes bearing the Sweetheart Town cachet scattered under it would help advertise their greeting cards. My husband fashioned a heart of heavy wire with a wire easel to hold it upright. I wired together a large number of bunches of silvered babies'-breath and red star-flowers. I then wired these one below the other to cover the wire. A fine thread held a white plastic basket suspended in the center of the decorated heart. Bits of babies'-breath filler and small sprigs of red and silver weeds made an airy nosegay to place in it.

While most of my arrangements were seasonal I also displayed a few others. Fiesta, a combination of tall grasses and tall podded material painted bright red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and black, was displayed in a tall black container. Its bright bold colors lend a festive air to a mountain cabin. It also makes a showy hearth piece in a tall urn especially in a pine-paneled ranch-type home.

AS A result of my hobby show exhibits I have had orders for many special arrangements. One order was for material for five baskets using the Eastern Star colors—red, green, blue, white, and yellow respectively. I used white filler sprinkled with silver glitter instead of mica for all except the yellow one. For this I used the gold filler, as described, and yellow and cream pods.

A woman who saw these brought a large iridescent gold vase to be filled with suitable materials. I again used the gold filler. I mixed apple green and yellow to produce a lime shade. Deep cream and lime pods and two-tone milkweed completed an arrangement which pleased my customer very greatly.

Another woman wished me to make and fill a wall-pocket with pastel material to be used as a gift for a bedridden invalid. For the container I cut a large tin cocoa can down half way, leaving one side to make a shaped back. A nail hole made an eye to hang it on the wall. When covered with foil, filled, and hung, it made a novel Easter gift.

A neighbor who was entertaining her extension club asked me to make her an appropriate centerpiece. She was using her fiesta pottery and cutlery with multi-colored handles. I was glad that I still had the fiesta pods used in my hobby show exhibit. I shortened the stems and made a low oval centerpiece. Since most of the members had not seen the familiar weeds of their gardens and farms "dressed up" in this way they were astonished at the transformation wrought with a few odds and ends of paint. The silver and blue material which I placed in a tall vase for another customer was very striking when placed before a floor-length mirror. These are only a few ways in which weeds have gone glamorous for special occasions. I will not describe more lest I deprive those who wish to pursue this all-absorbing hobby of the joy of creating their own brain-children.

My hobby knows no time nor clime. Sometime throughout the year there is a ripening time for all vegetation, depending on climatic conditions. While most of us think of autumn time as harvest time, in the case of weed gathering, there is scarcely a time that one cannot find some kind of material suitable to use. I neglected clearing off my flower border in the autumn. When I found time in the spring I was glad that some of the stalks were still standing. Wind and snow had helped me clean the stalks. I also knew that material which had withstood wintry blasts needed no further test for durability. During my clean-up I found snapdragon, delphinium, and similar stalks with all extra dry bits carried away. Both perennial and annual asters and marigolds had released their parachuted seeds when Old Man Winter beckoned them to travel with him and settle down in new beds to surprise some other gardener. These stark, denuded stalks were ready for adornment. Milkweed, evening star, and many of the sturdier wildings also stand till spring.

I NEVER miss an opportunity to display my weedcraft. Besides exhibiting at the hobby show three years as I have explained, I showed my creations at our garden club last year and answered questions. I received orders from members and also an order for two blue and silver bunches to be placed in vases for door prizes to be given at their forthcoming benefit card party. I was also asked to show my decorated weeds at a garden club meeting in a neighboring town. At the last moment I found it impossible for me to go. A local garden club member offered to take them for me. She took notes so that she might give any information asked of her. This brought me new customers from that city.

Seasonal arrangements displayed in shop windows also result in increased customer lists. I always try to have material on hand so that I may be able to fill an order on short notice. Word-of-mouth is one of the best means of advertising. You know that your customer really wants your product since his friend has recommended it to him. Such an order finally reached me by the grape-vine method. A woman in a neighboring town told a friend that she wanted very much to get some dry material for a gift. She could not find any in her town. Her friend had visited our hobby show and told her of my large exhibit.

A telephone call from one of the hostesses for a dinner party to be given by the Business and Professional Women's Club introduced me to another source of income from my weedcraft. She wished to have an arrangement suitable for this occasion and asked if I would consider renting one. I agreed to let her have one. She came to my home and chose my sparkling Frosty Morn to use for that wintry January meeting. I banked the base with more cotton and dusted it with mica. I replaced it in its large storage box. She returned it that same night. One dollar for the use of my sample arrangement seemed like finding money. I intend to push this kind of service.

It is not practical to ship made-up arrangements but I have successfully shipped both painted and unpainted podded stalks tied in bunches. After Profitable Hobbies published my article about coloring pussy willow bouquets in the issue of March, 1951, I received many orders. Some of these customers became friends and we still keep up our correspondence, exchanging ideas which help us both. I usually wrote about my weedcraft hobby. Several wrote me asking me to send a price list of both painted and unpainted stalks. Since some are more scarce than others, take more time to prepare, or require more time and paint if the painted stalks are ordered, it was necessary to list each variety separately. I sold several hundred articles in this way.

"DO YOU think that money grows on trees?" was the sharp retort when I, as a child, would ask for some useless doo-dad. I don't know what I thought then but I do know now that the weeds on my ditch bank, in truth, provide me with the doo-dads which I still like to buy as well as some of the more essential items. I made my first sale to a home gift shop which advertised its opening in our local paper. I took them a sample. I arranged a bunch of six or eight painted pods interspersed with silvered babies'-breath and secured it with a rubber band. I then placed it diagonally across a sheet of white paper. I placed the gay nosegay so that it was not covered when the wrapping was drawn around it and fastened around the stems. The shop owners were only too glad to have this showy gift item to add to their display shelves. They offered me 50 cents each for them, which I deemed enough for a small bunch like this. They phoned me often for more to replenish their shelves. Later I sold some large $1 arrangements to another home shop. My first and third grade neighbor school children bought the 50-cent tissue wrapped bouquets for their teacher's Christmas gifts.

I charged $2 for the material to fill each of the Eastern Star baskets. My price was also $2 for the gold vase, fiesta, silver and blue floor vase material and others of a comparable size. The invalid's wall pocket, medium size Easter arrangements and similar ones are priced at $1.50. More time is required to prepare my glittery snow materials, so I charge $2.50 for these. I had a nice order for four of these large blue and white sparkling snow arrangements to be used at a business firm's employees' Christmas dinner. Many others have purchased them to use for buffet or mantel pieces as well as table centerpieces during the holiday season.

My expense is not great as I buy dime store enamels and also watch for paint sales. I don't even have to buy all of my enamel, as neighbors who know of my taste for paint let me salvage the little dabs of paint left in the cans after completing their decorating. This last spoonful which would normally be taken to the city dump provides undercoating for some of the more porous pods.

Mine is not a hobby for a clock-watcher. Time consumed gathering and preparing weeds need not be accounted for too closely. Traversing paths along streamsides, following mountain gullies, or roaming over prairie expanses on a cold snappy autumn morning is invigorating exercise. As crisp breezes caress your face your zest for living mounts by leaps and bounds. Picnics with friends often develop into weed gathering expeditions. Even children catch the spirit. When my little four-year-old granddaughter comes to me with a tiny sprig of grass what else can I do but accept her offering and say; "Thank you"?