About

Get to know Regina Farms

2aWay back in 1914, Ed Regina’s grandfather bought a 100+ acre tract of land just north of Marshalls Creek, Pa., in the Pocono Mountains resort area. There was a boarding house on the site and he named it the Regina House.  A few years later, Ed’s grandfather sold some of the land to the East Stroudsburg School District for what is now the site of the Middle Smithfield Elementary School.

When Ed’s father inherited the property, he renamed the Regina House to the Regina Hotel, which prospered until it was destroyed by a nearby truck explosion in 1966. Now all that remains of The Regina House or Hotel is a weathered old wooden sign that hangs in the garden center’s main building, piquing the curiosity of shoppers.  Ed’s father eventual sold a parcel of the property that became Saint John’s Catholic Church.

The property then passed to Ed and his wife Ann, both teachers who at the time worked and made their home in Maryland. So, what to do with this scenic, sprawling, centrally-located, wide-open space in the next state? Start a Christmas tree farm, of course. Ed and Ann began planting the trees in 1980 and selling them in 1988, coming up on weekends to stand in the cold and help local families find their perfect tree to cut.

When Ed retired in 1995, he threw his efforts into building the stunning timber-frame “barn” that has become a familiar roadside landmark to Pocono visitors. With its wooden beams milled from trees that once stood on the property, striking metal roof, and 100% peg-built construction, the building has attracted almost as many admirers as the garden plants that surround it — although Ed admits, he mainly built it “because we were tired of freezing outside.”

Over the years, the Christmas tree farm has evolved into a full-service, three-season garden center and a well-known fixture in the Pocono community. Sadly, Ann Regina passed away in 2009, and is greatly missed by the Regina Farms family and friends. But more than 20 years after he “retired,” you’ll still find Ed Regina out and about every day, scooping up buckets of mulch in the loader, digging around with the Bobcat, driving the Regina Farms delivery trucks, and lending expertise and advice to thousands of faithful Regina Farms customers.