Mary Gardens
         are one way
          to express
          devotion to
        Blessed Mother


by Irene Voth                               Saint Cloud Visitor
Visitor Staff Writer                        May 9, 2002


  The idea for a Mary Garden may have
  come from medieval paintings - images
  of the Virgin Mary surrounded by
  flowers and plants of various kinds
  that came to be associated with her.
  Or perhaps, it happened the other way
  around: The paintings reflected the
  efforts of medieval gardeners who
  cultivated plants with features that
  suggested attributes of the Virgin or
  some aspect of her life.

  The Mary Garden's history is documented
  on the Internet home page of Mary
  Gardens - www.mgardens.org - an
  organization based in Philadelphia that
  promotes this traditional devotion to
  Mary.

  According to the Web site, St Benedict
  is said to have had a monastic rose
  garden or "rosary" in the fourth
  century, with the possibility that
Mary was already being symbolically equated to a rose, as
suggested by the prophesy of the birth of the Messiah in Isaiah
11:1 "But a shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from
his roots a bud shall blossom."

    St. Fiacre, the Irish patron saint of gardening, is known to
have planted a flower garden around the oratory to Our, Ladyi at
his hospice~ for the poor in France during the seventh century,

    The Venerable Bede, an eighth century English monk, priest,
theologian and doctor of the church, wrote of how the white lily
is symbolic of the purity of Mary and its golden anthers of the
resplendence of her soul when she was assumed into heaven.  Bede
was probably very familiar with the legend that when Mary was
assumed into heaven, her tomb was filled with roses and lilies.

    The lily, rose, violet and "golden	gillyflower" were specific
plants associated with Mary by St. Bernard of Clairvaux in the
12th century, and that century also saw the first flower actually
named for Mary: the marigold.  This was followed later by "Our
Lady's Slipper" and the "Madonna Lily."  Both still exist as
wildflowers, with the lily growing in remote places of the Holy
Land, and the Lady's Slipper in the woodlands of Minnesota (as
well as other places).

    The trend to name new species of flowers for Mary continued
until the Reformation, when the trend was reversed somewhat - one
example being the dropping of the word "Our" from "Our Lady's
Slipper" and "Our Lady's Mantle."

    With the Reformation, the devotional aspect of the Mary Garden
ebbed in England and many other places.  A modem Mary Garden
movement, however, began in Massachusetts in the early 1930s.

    Today, large, formal Mary Gardens exist in many places,
including Annapolis, Maryland; Mindanao, Philippines; Akita,
Japan; County Mayo, Ireland; Lincoln, England; the Holy Land, and
the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis.

    Today, a Mary Garden can be grown almost anywhere, even
indoors in a single dish or pot.  The Mary Gardens Web site
features almost endless possibilities for anyone wanting to plant
such a display.

    While there are hundreds of flowers and plants appropriate for
a Mary Garden, perhaps the two most common plants are a rose and a
white lily.  A shrub rose is an easy-tocare-for choice for a
central Minnesota Mary Garden, and numerous varieties exist. A
variety of white lilies is also available, and once the bulb is
planted, a lily, like a shrub rose, requires little care and will
return year after year.

    If space allows, other care-free perennial flowers may be
added to the Mary Garden.  These include Baby's Breath, once
called Mary's Veil, which can be seeded directly into the soil of
a sunny garden.  In the fall, spring flowering bulbs may be
planted, including irises (Mary's Sword of Sorrow), tulips
(NIary's PraYer) and daffodils (Mary's Star).

    Easy-to-g-row annuals for a sunny location include marigold
(Mary's Gold) as well as larkspur (Mary's Tears), cornflower -
also called bachelor's buttons - (Mary's Crown), morning glory
(Our Lady's Mantle), zinnias (The Virgin) and petunias (Our Lady's
Praises).

    Shade gardens might include these easy perennials: bleeding
heart (Mary's Heart), maidenhair fern (Mary's Hair), columbine
(Our Lady's Shoes) and lily of the valley (Our Lady's Tears); as
well as the popular shade annual, impatiens (Mother Love).

    The Mary Gardens home page also lists garden prayers and
meditations, including formal prayers of blessing for a Mary
Garden.  It also has links to further reading about Mary Gardens
and a review of the book Mary's 'Flowers, Gardens, Legends, and
Meditations" - by Vinzenzina Krymow.


Article and photos reprinted courtesy of Saint Cloud Visitor