When the hills of Czescik Park burst into a sea of yellow, white and purple daffodils and crocus (7,700 of them!) this March and April, it brought more than joy to Shippan’s residents and visitors—the blooms herald a season of public events celebrating Shippan Point Garden Club’s (SPGC) 100th anniversary.
In May, a favorite Mother’s Day Weekend tradition, SPGC’s May Market plant sale will fill the grounds of Our Lady Star of the Sea, and the month will close with a Centennial Celebration with the mayor. In June, the club will run a garden tour of six private Shippan gardens, and in July, the Centennial Flower Show at the Stamford Yacht Club. For the fall season, the community will come out for a second massive bulb planting at Czescik Park, and the year will close with the annual Doors of Shippan wreath contest in December.
The club estimates that over the 100 years, they have planted about 1,500 deciduous, evergreen and flowering trees, hundreds of shrubs and rose bushes, and thousands of bulbs and perennial flowers. Over the last dozen years, club members have focused on Magee Avenue and its intersection with Shippan Avenue, transforming a formerly depressed and neglected area into a beautified road leading to the Shippan Point residential community.
GARDEN TOURS
Two noteworthy stops on the annual garden tour featuring neighborhood gardens and parks.
In collaboration with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and community groups, SPGC has installed a Welcome Garden at the corner of Magee and Shippan Avenues, a Gateway Memorial Garden, and transformed a pit-like site into the Katrina Mygatt Recycling Center Garden. They donated the cherry trees that bloom on the right side of Magee and the euonymus shrubs and grasses on the operations back fence.
Cindy Lannon, a “relatively new member” since 2015 and president for the last two years, has been using her latent project management skills to organize the 100th-anniversary season of celebrations. “Reflecting on the last ten years, it’s amazing what our members have accomplished,” she says. “They work so hard—they are out there two to three times a week.”
MEMBER BENCH SHOWS
Throughout the year, the Club hosts Bench Show luncheons where members hone their craft, express their creativity and learn from each other. Some examples of the club’s green thumbs were featured in the competition.
The club’s 62 members (48 active) are a mix of Master Gardeners, home gardeners, condo-dwellers, folks who want to learn and those with a love of horticulture and floral design. Stamford magazine (March/April 2023) featured the waterfront garden of Erna Szekeres, an SPGC member since 1978, who turned 100 in March.
SPGC has been recognized many times by the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut and New England Garden Clubs. Their website, full of educational information, has also won awards. Members also do community outreach at St. Camillus and offer an annual scholarship to a college-bound senior planning to study biology or environmental science.
AS SEEN IN PRINT
above: Erna Szekeres’ garden was featured on the cover and in an article from Stamford magazine’s March/April 2023 issue. below: The Garden Club’s annual holiday wreath decorating competition, Doors of Shippan, has been a popular neighborhood tradition since 1989 and was showcased in a Westchester magazine.
Local Conservation
Since their start, members of the Shippan Point Garden Club have been warriors for conservation and civic beauty. Many of their efforts centered on the industrialized areas that led to Shippan Point.
SPGC embarked on its first civic project in 1926, planting 50 Norway Maples and London Plane Trees along Shippan Avenue.
In the 1930s, members successfully fought the construction of an extra incinerator on Magee Avenue. To stop the dumping of abandoned automobiles on Magee Avenue, the Board of Public Safety appointed six SPGC members as temporary policewomen. They also blocked a permit for an auto junk yard.
They battled Dutch elm disease, and joined with other clubs to create a bird sanctuary at Woodside Park.
In the 1950s, they continued their work cleaning up Magee Avenue. They waged a successful skirmish to remove 50 dilapidated Quonset huts left over from World War II in Cummings Park. Volunteers donated plants and restored the site.
In the 1960s, SPGC members stopped a rubber plant from buying a property on Magee Avenue, and scraped the building of a heliport. In the 1970s, they prevented 20 healthy trees on Sound Avenue from being chopped down.
Since then, SPGC members have pulled out invasives and dug in natives at West Beach to create habitats for birds, and they have planted dozens of trees in sites throughout the city.
100 YEARS OF BEAUTIFICATION
Stamford Advocate May 13, 1930
1926
What began in 1926 as a plant exchange for members quickly evolved into the garden club’s annual May Market — a plant sale open to the public that provides most of the funding for SPGC’s civic planting, community and philanthropy efforts.
1942
Yew trees planted at Ferguson Library
1952
Landscaping at Stamford Hospital
1939
Members partnered with other Stamford garden clubs to create a bird sanctuary at Woodside Park.
1964
With the help of a donation from SPA and a Sears Beautification Grant, SPGC members added another 47 pink and white Dogwoods (for a total of 225 trees planted) along Ocean Drive East and West.
2000
To celebrate the installation of the Welcome Garden, SPGC hosted a special garden party for neighbors, supporters and city partners.
Celebrate & Save the Date
May 9 & 10:
May Market at Our Lady Star of the Sea
An annual tradition for the community, guests can shop a selection of quality annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs and hanging baskets from local wholesalers and members’ own gardens. Pre-orders can be placed on the website.
May 31
Centennial Dedication and Celebration at SPGC’s Welcome Garden
The Stamford mayor, local dignitaries, and the community come together for a celebration at the Welcome Garden. Includes a tour of SPGC’s civic gardens, which the members have created and maintain.
June 13
Beauflora Centennial Garden Tour of Shippan Point
Featuring beautifully landscaped properties, this paid walking tour showcases five or six private gardens.
July 17
Centennial Flower Show: 100 Years of Beauty and Blooms at Stamford Yacht Club
Flower show will feature members’ floral designs, horticultural specimens, botanical arts and educational exhibits, meeting the standards of the National Garden Club. Judges from the Federated Garden Club will choose the winners.
Nov. 1
Second Annual Hill of Blooms Planting Party at Czescik Park
After last year’s successful planting party, it’s back by popular demand. This year, planters will bring augers to drill holes into the hard earth.
Dec. 4
Doors of Shippan Holiday Wreath Contest
This neighborhood favorite returns. Locals deck out their front doors for the annual wreath contest.