She Blooms Where She's Planted

There are many sorts of gardens. There are water gardens, rock gardens, flower gardens, Japanese gardens, and a host of others. However, there is one distinctly Catholic garden: a Mary Garden. If you want one ready by May, you'd better start now.

Just as stain glass windows taught the faith in an age of illiteracy, flowers and herbs are staging a comeback as items of reflection.

John Stoke, of MaryGardens.org has spent the last 50 years discovering the legend and lore behind the use of flowers in meditating on the sacred mysteries of our faith. When his research began in the 1950s, he was pleasantly surprised to find various pre-Reformation era books that listed hundreds of flowers and herbs bearing Our Lady's name: Lady's Bud (calendula), Mary's Star (aster), Rosary Beads (canna lily), Mary's Crown (bachelor button) Virgin's Bower (clematis) and Our Lady's Pincushion (thrift), were once the commonly used names of garden-variety plants around the world.

According to Vincenzina Krymow, author of Mary's Flowers, (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1999), rural Catholics learned of Mary in the 12th century partly “through [knowing] her flower symbols growing around them and their associated legends, as taught by itinerant preachers and wandering minstrels.”

Research reveals hundreds of legends and inspirations that have sprouted from the plant world. Columbine, or “Our Lady's Slipper,” is said to have sprung from beneath Our Lady's gentle step. The Assumption lily has long been known as Mary's flower, as memorialized by the angel holding forth a lily in many paintings of the Annunciation. Red poppies are one of the flowers said to have sprung up at the food of the cross from Jesus' redemptive drops of blood. The florets of Mary's Crown (cornflower) bloom in a crown-like ring as a reminder of Mary's coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Combine these legends and inspirations with soil, water, and seed; add an image or statue of Our Lady — and you have just planted a Mary Garden!

Whether it is in private homes, parish gardens or wayside chapels, The Mary Garden concept is growing in popularity. Moreover, their reflections are as varied as the souls who tend them. Some gardens might be planted entirely in white, to reflect her purity — every bud and blossom springing forth the unstained white bloom of her life. Focus only on three-petaled flora, and a garden can be a continual reflection on the mysteries of the Trinity. A garden intended to reflect our Lady's seven sorrows might be sown with the tear-shaped flower petals of the Virginia Spiderwort, Ladies mantle (bearing the stain of water drops from rain); Lily of the Valley, Quaking Grass (having tearlike seed clumps), and Job's tears, to name just a few.

Another colorful work of nature may give rise to meditations on the many virtues of Mary. The beauty of the hidden violet reminds us of Mary's humility. Monkshood, also called “Our Lady's Slipper,” is a visitation symbol of Mary's grace filled visit to her cousin. The periwinkle's blue (the Virgin Flower) recalls to us her fullness of grace. Even the strawberry holds divine revelation of Jesus' Mother. Once known as the “Fruitful Virgin,” it is in flower and fruit at the same time.

The possibilities are unlimited.

According to author Krymow, most people do not plant with a particular reflection in mind. They just plant what Marian flowers they find locally, and are pleasantly surprised by the results. “Wherever I give talks, people are very excited to find that the flowers they already love are associated with Mary. The Mary Garden is so easy to create, and it really does become a prayer in itself. People tell me often that once they learn the legends and names of the plants, they do find themselves thinking about Mary. The flowers and herbs in the garden come to have a special meaning, and they find themselves meditating on the virtues and times of Our Lady. And these aren't just Catholics. Episcopalians and some Lutherans are getting into the act as well. They have a sense that it's more than just gardening.”

A Mary garden can be as large or as simple as you like. It might be a reflection on the Way of the Cross, or just a collection of herbs that bring to mind Our Lady and a prayer. Whether it is a parish project, a space next to your house, or a simple dish garden for a sick friend, there are only two requirements: the flowers or herbs, and an image of Our Lady.

The key is to recognize it as a prayer. As one gardener put it, you need to be able “to see the act of placing a flower before Mary's statue as lighting a candle before her in the Church.”

How to Start

New Mary Gardeners are likely to be met with blank stares if they ask for “Our Lady's Milk” at the local garden center. Although most of the thousand of flowers and herbs are commonly available, the best seed catalogs and garden centers in our time are unlikely to have them listed by their pre-Reformation names.

One group of women, not knowing where to find the Catholic names of their favorite flowers, simply renamed them themselves. “I didn't know if they could do that,” said Krymow. “But I guess it's the prayer — not the name — that really counts.”

Before taking this approach, take advantage of the information others have already compiled. The www.mgardens.org Internet site has hundreds of lists, articles, and inspiration to draw on. Garden plans, plant lists, photos, and 50 years worth of Stokes articles and documentation are joined by an e-mail chat feature and monthly flower calendars.

If turning the pages of a book holds greater inspiration for you, you may be intrigued by the legends, meditations, and color sketches of Krymow's book, Mary's Flowers. The University of Dayton also has an impressive amount of data available, some of which is listed on their site: www. Udayton.edu/Mary. Additional inspiration might be found by pilgrimage to one of Our Ladies gardens at the shrines of Knock, Ireland, and Akita, Japan. The first public Mary Garden of the United States is at the Angelus Tower of St. Joseph's Church, Woods Hole, Cape Cod, Mass. Other beautifully maintained Mary Gardens are at St. Mary's Parish, Annapolis, Md., St. Catherine of Siena Parish, Portage, Maine, and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

Stokes recommends the planting of Mary Gardens as “as a prayerful, religious work of stewardship for God's flower, riches, and artistry with devotion, praise, thanksgiving, meditation, and commitment.” It's the kind of prayer that can draw in the elderly, give holy rest to the minds of the busy, and teach even the simple mind of a child. Leave it to Mary to use something so beautiful, and so earthy, as yet another means of planting the seed of Christ in the fertile soil of our souls.

Caroline Schermerhorn writes from Newark, Ohio.

Information

Mary's Flowers by

Vincenzina Krymow

(St. Anthony Messenger Press, 1999)

www.mgardens.org

www. Udayton.edu/Mary