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                                               Intro Mary Garden
Window Sill Mary Garden

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Rear:  Christmas Cactus, Our Lady's Eardrops.
       Mary's Tresses, Crown of Thorns

Front: Prayer Plant, Rosary Plant, Mother of Thousands;
       Christ's (Bloody) Sweat


John S. Stokes Jr.


     Mary's Gardens Associate, Bonnie Roberson, who assumed
primary responsibility for carrying forward the work of Mary's
Gardens from 1968 to 1983, introduced indoor dish Mary Gardens in
order to extend the direct experience of the symbolical Flowers of
Our Lady during northern latitude winters.  She discusses how
these gardens were developed in her 1977 article, "Mary Gardens";
and the culmination of her work with indoor Flowers of Our Lady is
chronicled in the 1983 article,"Our Lady's Solar Greenhouse".  Her
initial work with Herbs of Our Lady and outdoor Mary Gardens is
described in the 1962 article, "A Garden Full of Aves".

     Among the most inspiring Mary Gardens are windowsill Mary
Gardens, in which a series of potted single plants are movably
arranged around a figurene of Our Lady.  The number of plants
which can be grouped in a dish Mary Garden is limited, and the
plants must be small, so that one must come close to it to
distinguish the plants.  But in a windowsill Mary Garden the
plants can be larger, for recognition from anywhere in the room,
such as in school classrooms; and those plants in fullest bloom at
any given season can be moved to positions next to the figurene.

     The movability of plants also permits their grouping,
variously, either in general artistic composition by their forms
and colors, as above; or in tableaus of composition by related
symbolism, such as the following of Herbs of Our Lady:

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     Rosemary - Rose of Mary, Mary's Nosegay
     Sage     - Mary's Shawl
     Lavender - Mary's Drying Plant
     Thyme    - Mary's Bedstraw


     The accompanying photographs are of an indoor windowsill Mary
Garden assembled by the writer during a period of living away from
an outdoor Mary Garden.  The plants are from those listed in
"Indoor Dish Mary Gardens" which were found to be available from a
neighborhood florist selling house plants - with selection of
plant sizes appropriate to the size of the windowsill. These were
ample to fill the window sill; otherwise we would have obtained
plants from a mail order source for house plants, such as those
listed in "Dish Mary Gardens for the Blind".

     The experience of living with these indoor Flowers of Our
Lady at our elbow, so to speak, provided one of the most edifying
Mary Garden quickenings of thoughts and prayers to Our Lady of our
experience - supplemented with other, larger house plants and with
daily walks past plantings at local front yards and patios, shops,
and public parks.  We highly recommend it to all who are
apartment- or house-bound.


                



Copyright, Mary's Gardens, 1996