Co-President Patti Lookner speaks at the Ocean Pines Garden Club’s annual Arbor Day event.

By Cindy Hoffman

(April 20, 2023) The Ocean Pines Garden Club celebrated Arbor Day last Thursday with a tree planting in Pintail Park to honor friends and relatives who passed away during the previous year.

The celebration included music by the Delmarva Chorus and bagpiper Mike Castoro. Family members who lost loved ones helped to plant the tree, a serviceberry.

Pintail Park is a special place for the Garden Club. Its member donated the gazebo there, and the club helps to manage the park.  The club has planted 30 trees in Pintail Park.

The club has planted 32 trees in total, since 1991, with two trees planted in Bainbridge and Robin Hood Park, according to Ann Shockley, the co-president of the Garden Club.

Out of the 32 trees, 26 are still standing.

“If a tree is suffering or has died, Public Works will replace it for us.  We purchase the original tree, and we help to maintain the trees. The only thing I can imagine is that way back when this did not happen,” Shockley said.

The members of the Garden Club don’t just love to garden, they love Ocean Pines too and have played a major role in how the community looks over the years.

            The group of volunteers formed to help plant flowers, shrubs and trees around community signs, buildings, and parks, and in the median along Ocean Parkway.

Today, the club donates plants and materials and helps with beautification projects.

“This year, our gift is going to be to donate money to do the plantings at the North Gate, and we’re working with John Viola on that,” Shockley said.

“We’re going to help with plant materials, and we’re actually going to go with Tony and the Public Works staff when they go to pick out the plants.”

She said perennials and other plants grown by Garden Club members would be added to the North Gate plantings.

Gale Philippi, a garden club member, and publisher of their newsletter, emphasized that giving back and community service is a big part of what the club does.

“We love living here and we want our community to be beautiful,” Phillipi said. “Giving back just seems like a natural thing – especially for a garden club.”

The club members will be designing floral arrangements to sell for Mother’s Day at the Ocean Pines Farmers Market on May 13.

The club is always looking for new members.

“We’re a very welcoming group and we’re very friendly. So, if you have any interest in gardening, come on over,” Patti Lookner, co-president of the Garden Club said.

The Ocean Pines Garden Club meets on the second Thursday of each month. Guests and new members are welcome. For more information, contact Shockley at 410-688-1975 or Lookner at 410-973-1243.

For more information or to join the Ocean Pines Garden Club, visit bit.ly/OceanPinesGardenClub or www.facebook.com/groups/oceanpinedgardenclub.