Tree Planting Day 2025: Planting Trees, Growing Communities
Our Tanjong Pagar commemorated Tree Planting Day 2025 on 8 Nov. Discover the roots of this tradition and how it has bloomed into a community event in Our Tanjong Pagar.
Share to:
A Tanjong Pagar Tradition
“We need the greenery of nature to lift up our spirits”
It was then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew who planted the seeds of the tree planting tradition in Singapore. On 16 June 1963, the Prime Minister planted a Mempat Tree (Cratoxylum formosum) at Farrer Circus (now the intersection of Farrer Road and Holland Road), as part of his push for a greener Singapore. He believed that “a blighted urban jungle of concrete destroys the human spirit.” That was why, in the 60s, even though there were pressing problems like unemployment, housing, health and education, Mr Lee pushed for the planting of trees and shrubs.
Tree Planting Day was only made an official annual event years later, in 1971. Kicked off by acting Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee, he planted a Rain Tree at Mount Faber. The event was intentionally without fanfare, as separate tree planting efforts were underway throughout the island. This inaugural event belied the spirit of Tree Planting Day: it was a communal event to bring Singaporeans together.
Mr Lee himself would plant his very first Tree Planting Day tree on 12 December 1971: a Yellow Flame Tree at Tanjong Pagar Community Club.
A Community Affair
Today, Tree Planting Day has become a deeply-rooted November tradition in many townships across Singapore. Grassroots advisors and their constituents would come together to plant trees and flowering shrubs just in time for the north-east monsoon. These tree planting efforts have also been folded into the larger OneMillionTrees movement, a key component of NParks’ vision for a City in Nature, which targets to plant 1,000,000 trees by 2030.
On the morning of 8 November 2025, Tanjong Pagar GRC, Queenstown SMC, and Radin Mas SMC held their annual Tree Planting Day, at Blocks 165 and 166 Stirling Road. Residents from all over Tanjong Pagar, Queenstown and Radin Mas gathered on a bright Saturday morning not only to witness their MPs planting trees and shrubs, but also to contribute to the beautification of their community.
The event was very much a community affair. Preschoolers from the community gave a hand to their MPs in planting, hoeing and watering the newly planted Syzygium Glaucum Trees.
As Advisor Eric Chua noted in his address to the crowd, Tree Planting Day was more than just about the act of tree planting, it was about bringing the community together for the common purpose of making the neighbourhood a better place to stay. Even though residents might not be able to plant trees themselves, they could help keep their environment clean in their own way by keeping walkways clear, avoiding feeding wildlife, and preventing high-rise littering.
More than Green
Residents at Tree Planting Day 2025 also had a chance to contribute to the completion of flower murals weaving through the blocks. Armed with paint and brushes, children and adults took to the paint-by-numbers murals in droves. In a short two hours, the once-blank walls were bursting with myriad colours to accompany the new green trees and shrubs.
Ever since the 80s, Tree Planting Day had evolved beyond simply planting fast-growing “instant” trees like the Angsana or Rain Tree for shade and coverage. Back then, Mr Lee Kuan Yew had instructed the Parks and Recreation department to look for colourful trees and shrubs to add swathes of colour to Singapore’s landscape.
In the same way, the community came together to add more than just green to the neighbourhood. The blues, pinks and yellows on the flower murals brought as much life to the area as the newly planted trees and shrubs did.
A Sign of the Times
A highlight of Tree Planting Day 2025 was the sealing of a time capsule, to be reopened in 2053. Fresh from gardening, the advisors took turns filling a metal time capsule with all sorts of memorabilia from 2025: limited-edition MRT cards, photos, and publications which unsurprisingly shared an SG60-skewed theme. But the time capsule was not the only gift that residents were sending to the future.
Serving as the backdrop of the time capsule sealing ceremony, the newly planted Syzygium Glaucum Trees were no less important a gift from those present to future generations. Listed by NParks as “vulnerable”, the native Syzygium Glaucum was not just a reminder of the importance of greenery, but also the importance of our heritage.
In the 80s, the efforts of Tree Planting Day focused on planting varieties of fruit trees that were disappearing from an urbanising Singapore. Back then, fruit trees like the Binjai, Kedondong and Kundang were planted. Mr Lee Kuan Yew himself planted a Chiku Tree. Such is the beauty of tree planting. It is both a gift and a reminder from one generation to the next.
Entwined within the history of Tree Planting Day is the story of Singapore’s own journey through the decades. In the 60s and 70s, greening efforts focused largely on planting large, fast-growing trees, to encourage cloud formation, provide shade and make Singapore a more pleasant place to live. In the 80s, the efforts turned to colour and fruit, symbolising a blossoming country that now had the space to think of beauty and heritage. Mr Lee Kuan Yew hoped to nurture a generation with the social discipline to sustain the growing of more delicate fruit trees in housing estates, able to protect the fragile plants from vandalism and share the subsequent fruit.
Growing Communities
Tree Planting Day has now grown to become a towering tradition in Singapore. Deeply rooted in both nature and community, it has branched out to include ideas like neighbourhood cleanliness, sustainable living and climate care.
In fact, in conjunction with Tree Planting Day 2025, Tanjong Pagar Town Council Chairman Melvin Yong also launched a new campaign called Our Home, Our Responsibility. Mr Yong says the campaign aims to “plant a seed” in the hearts and minds of every resident, encouraging everyone to take greater ownership of their estates’ cleanliness and upkeep. Only with everyone doing their part can we ensure our neighbourhoods remain clean, safe and beautiful.
In this campaign, residents are specifically asked to take four key actions, represented by the acronym CARE:
CLEAR corridors of clutter to ensure easy daily access for everyone, and safer evacuations in an emergency.
AVOID accidents by dismounting and pushing bikes and PMDs along walkways.
RESTRICT pest breeding by disposing of food waste responsibly.
ELIMINATE high-rise littering for safety and cleanliness.
Much like the trees planted that day, this mindset of greater responsibility over our own neighbourhoods – if nurtured with care and inculcated in our children – will be a priceless gift to future generations.
Thinking ahead like this seems to be something ingrained in Singapore’s culture. After all, it takes ten years to grow a tree. Tree planting is an undertaking not for oneself, but for those that come after. As Singapore celebrates SG60, it is a good time to admire what our predecessors have left for us, and an even better time to think about what we can leave for the next generation.
To see what we’ve left behind for future generations on Tree Planting Day 2025, head down to Blocks 165 and 166 Stirling Road!
