Dedication Booklet 

          
     Starting St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
            Parish Mary Garden

   
Julie Henry                                          (7 Photos)             
North Huntingdon, PA

(Continued)                                     (to Beginning)


Jun 25, 2002

I finished up our church's June issue of the newsletter and
have e-mailed our church's website administrator about getting the
Mary's Garden put into the church's website.  We, of course, had a
story and several photos from the garden dedication in the
newsletter:

     http://www.st-elizabeth-seton.org

It should be posted soon, as a "Seton Chronicles Newsletter".

Fr Rick was very happy to hear about the Mary's Garden website and
our garden officially being a part of it.  He checked it out and
was very impressed.

You had asked about the statue for our garden, Our Lady of Grace.
Our Christian Mother officers chose that theme.  They asked Fr
Rick about where to order it and he came up with the company from
Italy.  If you would like, I could check with him about that.  As
far as payment, it came out of the garden funds that were raised.
We had several successful fundraisers, one of which was the Parish
Birthday/Anniversary Calendar which each year profited well over
$1,500.  (I'm not sure off the top of my head the amount but it
was quite substantial).

At the start of our garden planning, I had printed up many of
your pages from the website about the Parish Mary's Garden.  My
mother-in-law, the President of our group, approached Fr Rick with
the idea and he was very receptive and chose the site on the
church grounds.  We had a general meeting and invited any
parishioner willing to help.  We had a nice turn out with a lot of
different backgrounds to help.

That is where our plan designer, Regis approached us with his
talents.  We met at the site and reviewed the area and he was able
to draw up the plans.  The brick concrete worker, Marcos, was
willing to help.  Our parish is made up of almost 1,200 families
now and it's fairly easy to just ask around for help.  Fr Rick
knew a gentleman who had some farm land with some screened topsoil
which we were able to obtain (& have delivered) for free.  Someone
else knew a professional landscaper who suggested the hemlocks
and several other plants to be placed behind the statue.  (He also
donated his time & services).

Some of the plants used in our garden I have not been able to
find on the Mary's list - whether I was not checking the correct
common or botanical name.  Using your website and Vincenzina's
book I took it on myself to steer the group with the flowers
indicated on your Mary's list.  Working from Rege's plans, I
outlined possible plants that we could use.  Having a minivan came
in handy as it took many trips to the local nurseries for the
plants.  (I always made sure I had my notebook full of Mary's
Garden notes with me).  It's really not that hard to keep to
plants on the list as there are soooo many (even dandelions won't
have to be pulled if you think about it - they made the Mary's
list too).  I know several of the plants in our gardenĉare not on
the list and all of the ones listed in the booklet are not in our
garden.  I wanted our booklet to show what a "Mary's Garden" is
all about and perhaps it would help anyone whoĉwas even trying to
create their own Mary's Garden at home.

Dave Tallon, our landscape manager, has a degree in turf
management.  He used to work at a beautiful Country Club in
Ligonier, but has since relocated to another golf club.  His
mother is also a member of our Christian Mother organization and
she was very helpful in planting many of the annuals.  Dave is
very knowlegable and has many good ideas to keeping the garden
looking lovely.  I printed up a copy of the large list of Mary's
plants for him so he had the plant names we were trying to work
with.  Dave enjoys working in the garden and is very familiar with
the maintenance and care of the plants, including feeding and
weeding.  Work crews are available when needed for big jobs with a
few phone calls.

I believe you had also asked about the inscribed bricks in the
center courtyard.  Fr Rick suggested we use a local company in
Greensburg who does inscribing for memorial stones /benches etc.
We purchased, I believe, 2 pallets with 2000 bricks and the
initial load of inscribed bricks that we sold were taken to his
location, inscribed and returned to usĉand then Marcos laid them
in the courtyard.  The set up we have for future bricks will be to
have certain times (possibly 2 separate times) of the year when
we'll take orders, which the company will pick up, pull the blank
bricks, inscribe, and then deliver them back to us.  We were
fortunate that all of the benches have already been purchased and
were inscribed prior to them being placed in the garden.

I will try to get a night picture of the statue - my camera
does have a night setting on it so I'll see what I can do.  The
parking lot lights help also with the lighting of the garden.

If you think of any questions that I forgot about, please let me
know.  I've checked out your addition of our garden to the website
(several times actually - I'm so proud of it!) and I think it
looks good.  I will be printing a copy of it for my "notebook".

I have so many ideas floating in my head for our garden and I do
want to thank you, John, for your inspiration and prayers.  It's
such a prayer that every time I look at a flower, I think of Mary.
Thank you for that gift!!!!


June 30, 2002 - John Stokes

Thanks for your message of June 25.

Let me know when the Mary's Garden information is posted to your
parish website.  A link could be provided for access to the
dedication booklet as posted to our website.  Or you could
download the text and photos from our website and edit them any
way you want for putting on the parish website.  Or I could send
the text and graphic files to you as e-mail attachments, although
I have the files in Macintosh computer format, which may be
different from your Windows format - which would be the format in
which you would download them from the website (assuming you have
Windows).

I am pleased Fr. Rick thought well of the Booklet and Chat website
postings.  I trust he will find many ways of incorporating the
Garden in Parish spirituality.

Yes, I'm sure some who see the photos of the beautiful statue will
want to know the specific address of the dealer from which it was
obtained in Italy, and the name of the artist.

You are indeed fortunate in having Regis Holecko, planner, and
Dave Tallon, landscape manager, as parish and committee members.
Is Marcos (first name?), the brick and concrete contractor a
member of the parish?  Also, can you obtain the name of the
teacher or lecturer who conducted the horticultural class where
Joanna Graham and Lori Smith learned of Mary Gardens - and where
and under what auspices was the class held?

At this stage the important thing is to have other committee
members join and share in the work of Regis, Dave, yourself and
others so that the ability to perform various Garden tasks becomes
a parish resource, independently of the individuals who.first
developed them and took them on.

I learned this myself the "hard way".  In 1965, my Pastor asked
me, with assurances he would organize a supportive Committee, if I
would design, and oversee the digging and planting of, a parish
Mary Garden in front of the school.  After I designed the garden,
and then marked out the beds, there was a great turnout for the
digging and (with peat, sand, organic fertilizers an lime procured
by me) enriching the soil, and then putting in the plants
(procured by me), and the plant markers (made by me). Then there
was a great dedication and blessing attended by 100 people or so,
including horticulturalists from the neighborhood Morris Arboretum
of the University of Pennsylvania (see my website article from the
Morris Arboretum Bulletin, "Galega Officinalis, An Adventure in
Plant Naturalization")

Since my work at that time (Director of an interdenominational
ecumenical center) was in the afternoons and evenings, I was able
to attend daily Mass each morning at the parish, and it was the
most natural thing to spend 15 minutes or so after Mass each
morning weeding and watering the garden, pinching off the spent
blooms, etc.  Bill Morgan, who handled Parish buildings and
grounds maintenance took a great interest in the Garden and joined
me in this, and took care of it at times when I was away.  I made
notes of any plant replacements required, and took care of this in
the fall and spring each year, along with the procurement and
planting of biennials and annuals.  The result was the fullness of
bloom by the second spring.

  

All this occurred in a spontaneous way and I just didn't think to
seek the formation of a Mary Garden Committee to share in the
responsibility and work.

Then, on short notice, I moved out of he parish and area in the
fall of 1972, and Bill Morgan retired at the very same time.  In
checking the garden when I was back in the area briefly in the
spring of 1973, I found that nothing was being done to prepare it
for the new bloom season.  So I arranged to take a couple of days
to replace some perennials and plant the biennials and annuals.
Then, alas, when I was back again in the summer of 1974 I found
that the main bed had been grassed over, and just the little focal
corner bed remained, with a few unmarked annuals overgrown with
weeds and unpruned rose bushes.

The striking thing was how this occurred in the absence of an
in-depth committee - and all so quickly.

However, at least the small corner bed and a minimal planting were
maintained through the years; and in 1996 a new statue and
pedestal, and a trellis, were installed and plants added and cared
for - which are quite attractive - per the attached photo - which
were a matter of joy to me (although the larger garden and the
extensive and marked planting was and is still absent).

                 

I rejoice that the little garden has now survived 37 years, and
remain hopeful that an inspired Mary Gardener will emerge in the
parish to restore the garden to its full size and original glory,
and to form a parish Mary Garden Committee for its on-going
maintenance - now that parish Mary Gardens are being more widely
planted, and we, happily, have examples, especially yours, of how
Mary Gardens can be taken on as an integral part of parish
spirituality and organization.

I have also come to appreciate that another important element for
Parish Mary Garden survival is the incorporation of stone, brick
or concrete pedestals, terraces, benches and, maybe, pools and bed
borders - as in the Mary's Garden at the Basilica of the Shrine
of the Immaculate Conception in Washington; and at your parish.
With such a setting, it is less likely that garden beds will be
grassed over.

Interestingly the stone Angelus Tower beside which the Woods Hole
Garden of Our Lady was planted, the concrete statue, and the stone
bed borders (and a trust fund set up by Mrs. Lillie), all
contributed to its survival as a garden - even though with Mrs.
Lillie's protracted illness the Flowers of Our Lady and their
markers disappeared in the mid '40's, and were all gone when I
first visited the Garden in 1949 or 1950.

With Ed McTague's and my interest, Wilfred J. Wheeler -
contractor, nurseryman and Mrs. Lillie's brother-in-law - who
built the Angelus Tower and  installed the Garden beds and still
cared for it through his nursery staff, and Dorothea K. Harrison,
landscape architect and friend of Mrs. Lillie's who designed the
planting and improved it over five years from 1933 to 1937, met
with us at the Garden in 1952 and agreed to restore the planting
according to Dorothea's final, 1937, plan.

Wheeler, who as not a Catholic, had no personal interest in the
Flowers of Our Lady, and had let the Garden revert to a typical
summer garden of the area with just a few long-blooming attractive
flowers, mostly with no particular symbolism, and not the Marian
symbolism of the original plan.  But in view of our interest, he
offered to make the restoration  However, a hurricane destroyed
the entire garden later that year (overturning the statue, even
though it was secured by a pipe extending deeply into the ground)
and the task of securing the plant varieties for restoration of
the original plan somehow got lost in just trying to re-establish
the basic Garden site.

After that time, Wilfred Wheeler died, and responsibility for the
Tower and Garden was taken over by other non-Catholic relatives of
Mrs. Lillie's who became the trustees of the Chicago trust she had
set up for the Tower and Garden maintenance through the years.  It
was only around 1980 that responsibility for the maintenance trust
expenditures was given directly to St. Joseph's Parish so that
they finally felt it was "their" Garden; and for the 1982
celebration of the 100th Anniversary of St. Joseph's (and the 50th
golden jubilee of the Garden), parishioner and parish historian,
Jane A. McLaughlin restored the planting according to the 1937
plan (preserved at the Woods Hole Historical Collection (Society)
- with assistance from me in locating sources for some of the
difficult to obtain the plant varieties.  (Happily, while visiting
Woods Hole in the summer of 1981, I met Jane after Mass on Sunday,
and was able to offer her my assistance.)

Julie, I share these long stories with you to underscore my urging
of you and the parish to set up an on-going and self-perpetuating
committee responsibility for Mary's Garden.

Plants and trees which may not have specific medieval names, which
you mention, do also have their place in the Mary Garden.  All
flowers have their place through their "flower" symbolism from
prophecy, and their color symbolism, which is what you first see
in approaching - white of Mary's purity and joyful mysteries; blue
of her grace (white and blue - "Mary's colors"); red of the blood
drops of Jesus' Passion and Mary's co-redemptive sorrows; and
yellow/gold of Mary's heavenly glories and action.  But it is the
particular symbolisms of the flower forms which provide for the
richness of reflection, mediation and prayer.

Trees, with the divine creative wisdom of their intricate branches
and leaves - with their life and growth ("I will teach you of life
and of life everlasting") and also their other characteristics -
are symbols of Mary, the Seat of Wisdom; together with their
symbolism of other aspects of Mary:

          "I have struck root among the glorious people, . . .
          in the portion of the Lord, his heritage,
          Like a cedar on Lebanon . . . a cypress on Mount Hermon,
          Like a palm tree in Engedi, like a rosebush in Jericho,
          Like a fair olive tree in the field,
          Like a plane tree growing beside the water . . .
          I give forth perfume . . .
          I spread my branches . . .
          I bud forth delights like the vine,
          My blossoms bear fruit fair and rich."

                                             (Sirach 24: 13-17)

Of course the blossoms of the dogwood which you have are symbols
of Christ's Cross and the nail stains.