Chat & PhotosExemplary Mary Garden Lecture Organization and Presentation
Michael F. Holden, Boca Raton. FL May 6, 2003 - Michael Holden to John Stokes Just received this note. Can we marshall the experienced troops to assist in making this invitation a success. Would appreciate any resources - both human and literary - that you might know of. (attached note) May 6, 2003 - Lesley Vaitekunas to Michael Holden Hello, this is Lesley, I met you at Fr. Jim's retreat a few months ago. I am the one you gave the notebook about the Mary Garden to. I am writing to see if you might be interested in coming and speaking about Mary Gardens to our Secular Franciscan Order meeting on Sunday, June 15th at 1:30pm?? We have our meetings at the Poor Clare Monastery in Del Ray Beach. I thought it would be nice for our little group to hear about the history of Mary Gardens and how they might be able to have one in their back yard, of even in their homes. My husband and I have one now, it needs lots more plants, but it is a start. We had a nice statue made, about three feet high, on a base and with a trellis over Her. We have two Passion vines, one purple and one red. We have two rose bushes that are growing like wildfire!! Two Bouganvilia (Sp?) and some Blue DazeÉwe need some advice on what to plant in So. Fl., we need to do some investigating to see what is good for down here!!??? May 7, 2003 - John Stokes to Michael Holden Re. your message and fwd of May 6 re. Lesley Vaitekunas' request for a speaking engagement and assistance with their home Mary Garden, here are 3 suggestions for your inclusion: 1. Give a slide lecture. If you have a computer projector and can take the time, download the 50 6" slides from the website. If this is too much I can send you 50 35 mm conventional cardboard-mounted slides and narration text for an earlier lecture - same flower slides 10 - 40, but medieval intro and home gardening conclusion. (Don't have the new beginning and ending slides in the website version of the slide lecture in cardboard mount format.) 2. Suggest the following Flowers of Our Lady - with additions and deletions for South Florida - which, by way of a cc of this message, I ask Al Manassa if he will make: Annuals Althea rosea Hollyhock St. Joseph's Staff Coix lachryma Job's Tears Mary's Tears Impatiens Wallerana Patient Lucy Mother Love Tagetus patula Marigold (low) Mary's Gold Tagetes erecta Marigold (tall) Mary's Gold Helianthus annus Sunflower Mary's Gold Ipomoa purpurea Morning Glory Our Lady's Mantle Petunia (hybrids) Petunia Our Lady's Praises Scabiosa atropurpurea Sweet Scabious Our Lady's Pincushion Zinnia elegens Zinnea The Virgin Perennials Adiantum tenerum Maidenhair Fern Lady's Hair Begonia fuchsioides Tuberous Begonia Mary's Heart Bougainvillea Bougainvillea Trinitaria Euphorbia splendens Crown of Thorns Christ's Crown Fuchsia magellanica Fuchsia Lady's Eardrops Impatiens Wallerana Impatiens Mother Love Jasminum officinale Jasmine Mary Lonicera (japonica) Honeysuckle Our Lady' Fingers Lythrum salicaria Purple Loosestrife Christ's Blood Monarda didyma Beebalm Sweet Mary Passiflora caerulea Passion Flower Passion Flower Poinsetia Holy Night Flower Holy Night Flower Pelargonium hybrida Florist's Geranium Heart of Jesus Rhoeo discolor Moses-in-Bulrushes Christ-in-the-Cradle Rosa (hybrids) Rose Mary's Rose Rudbeckia hirta Back-Eyed Susan Golden Jerusalem Verbascum thapsus Great Mullein Our Lady's Candle Bulbous Caladium bicolor Caladium Mary's Heart Eucharis grandiflora Amazon Lily Madonna Lily Lilium longifolium Easter Lily Easter Lily Tigridia pavonia Tigridia Christ's Knee,Trinity 3. Find out how many people will be expected for the lecture, and print out copies of the Introductory 12 Annuals and Meditations pamphlet from the website. May 9, 2003 - Michael to Lesley Dear Lesley, Thank you for the invitation to hear about the history of Mary Gardens, and how to have a backyard garden of one's own. This would be a 'first' for me, but one I would be happy to attempt. I have enlisted the assistance of John Stokes Jr., Founder of Mary's Gardens, who has already provided me with helpful information, and will continue to do so. If you could give me some background about your group (see below), it would be helpful to plan something entertaining as well as useful. 1. How many minutes would you like to devote to the presentation? This will definitely decide the format and contents of the presentation. 2. How many members of the Group do you expect at the June 15th meeting? Would you like to invite any of the Sisters at the Monastery to join us? (again, how many?) Can they attend? (I mention this because a monastery in Alabama has been successful in offering dish Mary Gardens in their gift shop!) See No. 5, below 3. What type of room accommodations will be available for the presentation? 4. Can you give me an inkling as to the ages of your members? 5. Would it be possible to actually assemble a simple dish garden if a place were available, and I brought a few plants for a real-live demonstration? This information might be enough for a starter. We can talk again as ideas develop! Thanks again for your kind inviation. Hope to hear from you soon. May 9, 2003 - Lesley to Michael WOW!!! How exciting. I just read your reply!! I will have to take a few days to think about all of the responses! Our Franciscan meeting is the third Sunday of each month, at our next meeting in May we will be having professions and I will bring up the subject. I have put it in our newsletter. Please send me your snail mail address and I will send you our Franciscan Newsletter. At the professions there will be other groups there (from Ft. Lauderdale) and I will invite them too, so hopefully we will have a fairly good number, I will try to get a head count for you. And YES I will invite the Sisters too. I have to get the final o.k. from our council meeting, I am the vice minister so I will bring it up and we will take a final vote, then I will announce it to everyone. May 9, 2003 - Michael to Lesley Thanks for your super prompt response: I'm impressed - 20 minutes, 31 seconds! Very pleased to hear that you might extend an invitation to "other groups". In addition to the website resources, there are two publications about Mary's Gardens written by two Mary's Gardens Associates which I shall mention next time. One is a hard back book (now out in paperback), and a teachers' guide for Catholic Schools and CCD Programs. The first is an excellent overview/history; the second a hands-on classroom guide for children. Regarding the eventual scheduling of the presentation, I am very flexible when it comes to an actual date, and you can schedule this presentation whenever you think it most convenient for most people to attend. May 11, 2003 - John to Michael This is in addition to my initial response to your request for suggestions for your June Mary Garden presentation to Lesley Vaitekunas's Franciscan group and others at at the Poor Clare Monastery in Del Ray Beach: - that you use, if you need them, the cardboard-mounted 35 mm color slides from Slide Lcture #1 of which I have an extra copy I can lend you - that you give them the suggested list of flowers suitable for the S. Florida area that I sent you and - that you print out, from the MG website, for audiance distribution copies of the website pamphlet and illustrative for the Introductory 12 Annuals Mary Garden Regarding the second suggestion, and since you have a month before the lecture, I suggest, further, that you check out area garden stores and plant nurseries (in the yellow pages, etc.) to find out which of the Flowers of Our Lady on the list are actually available locally, and which where. Since the lecture will be at a monastery, and perhaps people at or associated with other monasteries will be in the audiance, I suggest you point out that at many monasteries and other religious residences community members have have planted little niche Mary Gardens in existing gardens or shrub borders - when it is not feasible to start a new, free-standing Mary Garden. See my website 1997 - "Niche Mary Gardens" article, at /JS-NMG-MG.html Then, since the audiance will be of people already devoted to Our Lady, point out that in the tending of Mary Gardens as a further devotion, the accompanying meditation on the Flowers of Our Lady and all flowers - her signatures - results in the quickening of their prayers to Mary whenever they see gardens, decorative plantings or bouquets of flowers through the day, in accordance with St. Paul's exhortation that we are to "pray always". This is of special importance in this post "9-11" era of threats of terrorism, because of Our Lady's request at Fatima that in addition to our prayers of the Rosary, through her Immaculate Heart, for the graces of world peace, we are also to offer as sacrificial reparations for peace not only fasting or specially undertaken morifications, but all the acts, time, aggravations, disappointments and sufferings etc.of the duties of our daily lives. Of all the things that meet our eyes through he day, flowers are the most special reminders and prompters of such continuing prayer and sacrifice - midst all the other distractions and demands on our attention. May 11, 2003 - Lesley to Michael Well, let me try to answer some of your questionsÉ 1.) I think 20 minutes to a half hour would be the amount of time for the program. I will check this month with the "higher ups" and see for sure how much time you can have. Then I will let you know what they say. 2.) Our average group is about 20, but I will invite others from the other groups and hope they are able to come too. It is good that we are having professions this month because it will give me a chance to tell the other two groups. We must pray for a good turn out. 3.) The room is large enough to hold about 50 people. We have had several there before whenever we have had professions. 4.) The average age is elderly!!! I am 55 and one of the youngest!!! Hee hee!! 5.) YES!! I think this is a great idea because so many of them are probably living in condos or not able to take on big gardening projects due to their age. However, the dish gardens would be great!! And YES we have a table you could use to do a demo on. That is great! Also I think it would be good for them to learn because there are so many elderly and some are sick. It would make a great witnessing gift for those who are ill, homebound, or in the hospital. 6.) I will invite the Sisters too, there are only about six of them, but maybe one or two could come. I think that is a great idea!! They have a very tiny area where they sell handmade cards and golf ballsÉbelieve it or not!! (Their monastery is near a golf course and they get the stray balls, clean them up and package them, and sell them for 6 balls for $2.) And maybe they could sell a few dish gardens too. Last month I mentioned a little bit about the Mary Garden that we planted and many had never heard of it, so I am sure they will find your presentation very interesting and helpful. I am excited about it. Just from listening to you speak at Fr. Jim's retreat I wanted to hear much more! You are a great speaker. AND I have been sharing the story with those from my Church (San Isidro) in Pompano Beach. We have a Legion of Mary group that I have been sharing with and they are interested in hearing you speak too, so maybe that could be a future project??!! They are younger and energetic!! AND yesterday my husband, daughter and I just happened to notice where they are a few areas that could be ideal locations as a place to plant a Mary Garden at our Church. ÊPerhaps our Legions of Mary might take it on as their projectÉbut I suppose I am getting ahead of myself!! I know personally, I could not do that, due to the time involved in the ministry God has called us to do. That being the retreat center for priests ("Top-Lot", Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Ministry for Clergy). We will definitely have a Mary garden up in N.Y.S. whenever we build the chapel and retreat center. And I recently found out that one of my husbandÕs relatives is going to a college in N.Y.S. and studying to be a landscape architect!!! God is so good, HE always provides!! Amen! Now, we must pray for Him to provide the money to pay for this project. I know HE will, and He is still leading us along little by little. Just a few weeks ago I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and had the plans for how to build the place. I will share it with you when I see you again. There will be four gardens surrounding the chapel and center, (which will be in the shape of a Cross) one of them a Mary Garden, one for Saint Pio, one St. Therese of Lisieux, and of course one for St. Francis of Assisi. Our garden here doesn't have a lot in it yet, because I am having a hard time knowing what plants from Florida do well and how to arrange them according to height, etc. etc. Do you know of any Florida Mary Gardens where I could contact them and ask someone about the gardening details? Well, enough for nowÉafter our next meeting on May 18th I will have more information. May 12, 2003 - John to Michael As you know, it takes specially devoted and dedicated persons to take time and thought and to do the necessary research, organizing and expediting to establish well designed and lasting Mary Gardens. In Lesley you have clearly found such a person, and I sense that in addition to setting up lectures for you, she will find and inspire other such persons. From what you say, I'm beginning to get a better idea of gardening practice in S. Florida: It is also a great blessing that Al Manassa has offered to help with plant lists and related information for South Florida Mary Gardens! A strong Catholic presence exists in South Florida. We have a 12-month growing season in this area; all we need to do is adjust to the seasonal climate, which Al could do with TWO lists: one for November-April, and a smaller one for May-October. Winter is the best time of all for gardening here. Most perennials and annuals sold in garden shops such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc. are sold here. Caladiums are used extensively here in the hot summer months, so you might expand the Caladium entry in the list to include the several varieties used here. AND Bougainvillea are also important as an easy-to-grow, profusely grown plant in this area. (You might send Al a few pictures of their use in the St. Justin Martyr Mary Garden in Key Largo.)" Perhaps all the annuals in our Introductory 12 Annuals Mary Garden - and in the Gulf South winter list - can be cultivated in S. Florida in winter. (Al ?) If this is so, what we need to come up with further is a selection of perennials from the 300 Tropicals list. As indicated on the list, I verified that each plant from Bonnie's research from the floras of the various tropical American countries had a corroborating posting on one or both of two plant encyclopedias. I was disappointed to find, when Father Tom moved to Florida. that very few plants from the 300 Tropicals list were cultivated in the Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami - according to their Tropical Gardens book. A check just now shows that very few, also, are listed in their Internet database. I hope, as I wrote to Al, that more on the 300 list are available from nurseries. Anyway, as you say, we need two lists of available plants - perennials and winter annuals. One source I will check, is Logee's Greenhouses in Danielson, CT, which is a major source for the tropicals we grow in the North as house plants and in dish and windowsill Mary Gardens - and who send out plants mail order by UPS. As another approach, at the suggestion of our local Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Library, I wrote the appended fwd message to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Library in Sarasota. It is evident that the tuning up of our Tropical Mary Gardens information, and the planting of some of thee gardens in S. Florica parishes will be a major accomplishment for 2003. May 18, 2003 - Michael to John Yesterday, Bernadette and I attended the International Orchid Festival in West Miami-Dade at the Fruit and Spicelands Park. It was a glorious experience. There were about 52 exhibitors with at least a third of them from around the world. Many from South America, a few from Africa, and the Pacific. I looked for flower books relating to Florida in the Park Gift Shop, but found none worthwhile. The best place for books is the Fairchild Tropical Garden, which has a tremendous bookstore and research facility. They emphasize tropical (Pacific) plants and trees brought back early in this century, but they also have a large collection of bromiliads. We do not know the condition of the Gardens since Hurricane Andrew! However, tropical growth here is lush and grows very quickly. They have an annual plant sale at the end of the month. There is a slim chance we might attend. THe American Orchid Society Headquarters is just a few miles away from us here in Delray Beach, adjacent to the Morikami Museum and Gardens. I wonder if the early Spanish missionaries named some of the beautiful local orchids after Our Lady. The interesting thing about orchids is that they are constantly breeding new ones, which reduces the possibility. I recall visiting the Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach years ago when we first moved here. That might be another local source for South Florida. What impresses me about this area, traveling even in a limited fashion, is the differences in climate and thus flora. The standard annuals and perenials do well in the apropriate season here (in Palm Beach County); we saw lots of roses in bloom while traveling yesterday (3 hours round trip - just north of Everglades National Park). North of Vero Beach, crown of thorns does not survive the winter. Caladium has been a constant and popular summer planting here, as well as coleus which seems to be in profusion this year, and have been just recently planted. The Royal Poinciana tree is now in bloom; the flowers are bright crimson red and resemble the mountain laurel. I wonder if Fr. Stanley's source for Trinitaria has any information about this unusual tree. May 18, 3003 - Lesley to Michael Just returned from my Secular Franciscan Order group. I told them all about our "guest speaker" (YOU!) for next month, June 15th at 1:30 p.m.. I invited everyone there today, guess there were around 50 or so. Hopefully at least half will come, summer months are sometimes unpredictable due to vacations though. LET pray for the ALL to come!!! Keep in touch!! I have new roses every day now!! Praise God!! May 21, 2003 = John to Michael As for the presentation of slide shows, I have to think in the most general terms of what resources all may have or have access to. The most widely used slide presentation software program is Microsoft "PowerPoint", for both Windows and Macintosh. Those who have Macintoshes already have the "Appleworks" (previously "ClarisWorks") word processing program, which has a similar slide-show feature. These permit you selectively to load to them for each lecture (6") slide files, downloaded from the website on a disc database; and then to view them in this order on a computer-connected flat computer screen monitor, as you suggest, or projected with a computer projector (a number of which are widely available for rental or purchase) to a conventional white fabric or plastic screen - portable, or installed in the room. The advantage of the computer projector is that it is suited for either a small or a large screen depending on the size of the lecture room or hall, whereas a flat screen monitor is limited to a smaller room. Also, the projector in the rear of the room can be triggered by the lecturer for each next slide through a wire-connected hand-held switch. I have the equipment to copy a file data base, and text and graphics generally, from a download computer disk to a DVD disk. The currently sold new PowerPoint program is quite expensive, but the older ones all have the slide shown feature and you can probably pick one up at a computer second hand software dealer inexpensively. Jun 16, 2003 - Michael to John The Mary Garden presentation at Christ the King (Poor Clares) Monastery in Delray Beach yesterday afternoon was well received. About 25 were in attendance. The meeting was the regular monthly meeting of one of three Secular (no longer called Third Order) Franciscan groups in the Diocese of Palm Beach. The Formation Director, Ted Perzenowski, is a long-time friend of ours and a member of our own parish - Our Lady of Lourdes. He leads the Rosary for Peace this afternoon at 3 PM, as he does every Monday afternoon. The Secular Franciscans use several rooms outside the cloister but adjacent to the monastery. I attended a formation session in which two (Franciscan) members were present. After a snack break, we then went into a large room with comfortable chairs and divans in a circle. A general business session was held, a consecration to the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart recited by the group, and then the Mary Gardens presentation. I sat at a round table on the outside of the ring of the group where I was able to see everyone comfortably. People relaxed and sipped or munched for the first few minutes - a very nice relaxed atmosphere. The presentation was scheduled for 20-30 minutes. I mentioned to the group, in a few of my introductory remarks, that since I was accustomed to teaching an entire survey course in the history of the world from August of one year to June of the next, and, that since Mary's Gardens was only some 50 years old, I could probably say all I had to say in five minutes!! However, since it was the last event of the day, no one objected to an almost (I didn't realize the time) one-hour presentation about Mary's Gardens! Everyone (including a few first-time guests) were extremely attentive and interested in each of the topics I covered.Ê I covered every phase of MG, giving time to history, your research efforts, Woods Hole and other MGs up to the present, all types of gardens, etc. I gave much time to the doctrine of signatures which fascinated the group, speaking about the importance of the cathedral carvings as mnemonic devices and as teaching tools to remind the medieval peasants of the various Biblical stories connected with their faith. This led perfectly into the signatures of flowers and how each flower reminded the peasants of the virtues and qualities of Our Lady. I mentioned that, of God's two creations - Nature and Man - only Man had disappointed God, and that the medieval peasants could sense and accept the unsullied beauty of Flowers of Our Lady as a reflection of God's perfect creaton, in stark contrast to the difficult times in which they lived. I had brought three fair-sized pots of marigolds, placing one of them on the table in front of me, and pointing out the eternal unchanging beauty of the plant as a perfect work of God - in contrast to Man's fallen nature. When it came time to explain a Mary Garden, I placed a statue of Mary beside the pot and said, "Now THAT'S a Mary Garden!", as I described its legend, and the several types of MG's. I spent time on the seven sorrows of Mary, using the iris as an example of how the casual contemplation of a simple flower could contain so much power to recall all these biblical events in the life of Mary. We also talked about the violet and the lily-of-the-valley in the same way, mentioning that the practice of humility can drive out many vices such as anger and jealousy, and the various degrees of sorrow Mary must have experienced during her lifetime. Some literally gasped with pleasure and approval as I explained the significance of the caladium (red -Sacred Heart / white - Immaculate Heart / white with a tiny vein of red - (a lesser sorrow such as leaving Jesus behind in the Temple?), and about Fr. Stanley's discovery of the Bougainvillea as Trinitaria - which grow profusely all year here in South Florida, and the MG at St. Justin, Martyr in Key Largo. In recognition of Father's Day, I mentioned St. Joseph and the hollyhock. I had prepared about twelve different handouts which I placed at a long table at the further end of the meeting room once we dispersed. People drifted immediately to the table where almost all of the 20 copies of each article were taken. (I could have printed more of Fr. Stanley's Fourteen Meditations, and I had Ted read his meditation on the Crown of Thorns to the group.) I encouraged them to take some for their own use - or to share with others. The titles I can recall are: Tip-toeing to Mary, Mary-Gardening with St. Francis, 100 Plants for a Larger Mary Garden, Twelve Flower Meditations Suggested by the Flowers of Our Lady , Popular Plants for Indoor Dish Gardens, The Garden Way of the Cross, Patio Container Mary Gardens, Window Sill Mary Gardens, a two-page collection of photos of the MGs in North Bennington and Pennsylvania, Beginning Outdoor Mary Garden, Beginning Indoor Dish Mary Gardens, Introductory Annuals, and a few others I may have missed. Before the meeting ended, we distributed one pot of marigolds to the person who travelled the farthest (a guest who accompanied Lesley), one to the oldest gentleman (the author of the Brother Juniper series of cartoons), and one to Lesley who arranged the event. The Brother Juniper cartoonist - whose name escapes me - came to me and mentioned that Michelangelo, in his Pieta, included Christ's knee touching the trunk of a tree, out of which sprang small branches, as a symbol of the coming Resurrection: a perfect indication that the doctrine of signatures was well-understood by the artist. Lesley said we needed a list of Flowers for South Florida, and I explained the Gulf South List and that Al Manassa was working on the South Florida list; when I mentioned that we needed TWO lists - one for winter and one for summer - many heads nodded affirmation. Several people asked about Woods Hole, and specific flower symbols. Many people came to me afterwards and thanked me for my efforts, expressing the fact that they were unaware of this aspect of their Catholic faith. In preparation for this unusual information, I had mentioned in my opening remarks that the many different contributions to our Faith - Orders, saints, revelations, devotions, liturgies - all provided each of us a choice by which we can all reach our ultimate goal as Christians.ÊÊ It was an extremely enjoyable afternoon which began at 1:30 PM and lasted until 4. Jun 15, 2003 - Lesley to Michael THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for today's talk. You were great! We loved having you come to visit our Franciscan group. I also loved hearing about your story at the age of 10. I would love to hear more about your life and how the Blessed Virgin Mary is using you. I wish we had had more time to listen because I know you had lots more to share! I know we got a few people excited and interested in at least having a Mary's garden in their homes if not outside. God is so good to have given Maggie and I the marigolds and there we were riding together!! I will have to take a photo of the WHITE periwinkle that I was telling you about. First of all it was a miracle to have a periwinkle growing out of the concrete last year, and it was light purple, but then this year shortly after we planted the Mary's garden a new periwinkle appeared in the concrete and this time it was WHITE. And it is profuse in its blooms. Last year only had three (?Trinity?) blooms. We have NEVER planted periwinkleÕs before and last year is the first time we have ever had one grow at our home, much less in the concrete. We have lived here since 1988!! I know it is God's way of encouraging us, as Fr. Ian Taylor from Trinidad said when he saw it, "All things are possible through Christ, if HE can make a plant grow in concrete He will certainly help you to build the retreat center and chapel." I always remember it whenever I get a little discouraged about the Top Lot becoming a reality! BUT, NOW this year with the WHITE one it is a double miracle I think!! PRAISE GOD!! I just had to share the story today because to me it was God at work. Thank you again and again and thank your lovely wife for allowing you to visit us! We hope you are able to come next Sunday, but if you are not able to we will accept a rain check for the next time we have a Mass. We have been blessed with a priest that is very excited about the top lot. His name is Fr. Gustavo and he is from Colombia. Please pray for him to learn English quickly. ( and for me to learn Spanish!) He will bless the Mary's garden on Sunday. I don't have a lot of flowers yet, but it is a beginning, inexpensively.