Don’t stroll past those vases of native flowers for sale in front of the Post-Crowell House on July 4, during the Artists on the Lane event.

Please!!

Stop in your tracks and buy one, or two, or three for your weekend company, or just yourself. (Or make a donation.) Your purchase enables the Bellport Garden Club to plant more trees.

The vases are priced at $10, $15 and $20. (Come on, you can spring for at least one!)

“People start coming over at 9 a.m.,” said Bellport Garden Club Beautification Committee member, Sherry Binnington. “This is one of our only fundraisers for the tree fund.”

“We’ve planted 110,000 trees since 1938, thanks to fundraisers like this one and donations,” added Evonne Hammond, another BGC Beautification Committee member.

More trees means more oxygen to breathe, nesting and foraging areas for birds, shelter for bugs which birds eat, shade for cooling, cleaner air, and absorption of traffic noise and carbon dioxide.

Besides, Bellport was named a Tree City USA last year. There are currently 3,559 recognized cities; status requires meeting four core standards of sound forestry management and the celebration of Arbor Day.

So, wouldn’t you want to especially keep the title going?

Mary Butler is BGC president. This is a nice club. The women all point fingers at each other when it comes to specific efforts instead of taking credit, and they do a lot.

They were standing in front of several vases with salvia, evening primrose, pink yarrow, red cleome last week.

“These are flowers picked from our gardens or by the roadside,” Hammond said. “We plant wire-friendly trees that don’t have to be trimmed by DPW [Department of Public Works] as well as sycamores.

They plant 15 trees in the fall and 15 in the spring.

“[Department of Public Works superintendent] Jason Crane goes around the village and waters them,” Binnington said. “He keeps in touch with Evonne and I.”

The goal, they said, is to plant different species of trees so that if an insect invasion hits, it doesn’t eliminate the whole lot. The emerald ash borer did a number on the local ash trees a few years ago in the village. Out of 40 planted in the early 1990s, 20 were wiped out. Now they get treated every year. It’s not cheap; it’s a $5,000 application.

“It takes a long time to be designated a Tree City,” Binnington said, looking out at the shady swath of trees on Bellport Lane.