Trees memorialize deceased garden club members

Three crape myrtles planted for the departed

Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

Click here to enlarge this photo Photo by ADRIANA TORRES Members of the Charles County Garden Club and family of deceased members, Helen Mitchell, Irene Wood and Marjorie Farrall, gather to dedicate trees in their memory at the Port Tobacco Courthouse Saturday. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Outside the Port Tobacco Courthouse, family members of deceased Charles County Garden Club members gathered on Saturday to dedicate trees in memory of their loved ones.

Helen Mitchell, Irene Wood and Marjorie Farrall, all former garden club members, have passed away within the last year, said Lucille Attick, memorial tree dedication chairwoman, and each had a tree dedicated to her.

The dedication is part of a longstanding tradition of planting a tree in memory of club members who have died, Attick said. Doing so "beautifies the county and memorializes deceased members." The trees are planted at various public buildings around the county and sometimes at churches which the members attended, she added.

For these three members, three red crape myrtles were planted, each with a plaque which read "In Loving Memory" followed by each woman's name.

"We try to plant trees traditional to the county," Attick said, adding that last year, for the 350th anniversary of the county, the club planted thousands of red crape myrtles.

Standing in front of three bare trees, which are expected to bloom in the spring and can grow between 8 and 10 feet tall, Attick welcomed family members of the deceased women. In their memory, Attick invited someone to speak briefly about each lady and her love for gardening.

First, Helen Mitchell's daughter, Cherry Mitchell Stackhouse, spoke on behalf of her mom, saying, "Thank you for doing this for Mom. She would be thrilled." Stackhouse reminisced about memories of her mother‘s gardens, joking about the times Stackhouse "destroyed her azaleas" while sledding as a kid. She called the trees a "great living tribute to all three of them," referring to her mother, Wood and Farrall.

Attick then introduced Wood's family and Bobbie Baldus, a fellow garden club member, delivered a speech in her memory. Approaching the trees, Baldus touched the one planted in Wood's honor and said, "OK, Irene, we're talking to you, stand up straight," which made those present smile. "We want you to bloom nice and beautiful next year," she said.

Baldus said Wood, who was born and raised in La Plata, joined the club in 1975 and was "there helping always with her smiling face, encouraging others."

Attick introduced Marjorie Farrall's family, and Linda Clark, her daughter, said a few words. She began by reiterating all the families' thanks to the garden club for honoring the memory of their loved ones. Clark said her mother "loved all things gardening," even "digging in the dirt."

"She would be honored to have a tree in her memory," she said.

To wrap up the dedication, Mary Pat Berry, president of the club, said, "These three Southern ladies will be represented" by these trees and will have their "roots right here in the county."

The specific type of red crape myrtle dedicated for the deceased women is called "dynamite" red crape myrtles, for the red hue of their blooms. The trees were chosen because they are traditional for the county, but also because they have something in common with the women for whom they were planted.

"These three ladies were dynamite," Berry said.