Mary's Gardens

                                               .

Robert Ostermann

Irish Ecclesiastical Record, February, 1953

 Primula veris . . . Campanula rotundifolia
 . . .Verbascum thapsus ... Armeria maritima  
....  Only those few of us who are botanists
will be able to identify behind the technical   
nomenclature the flowers known to the majority  
by less formidable titles: Cowslip, Bluebell, Mullein, Thrift.  But
the number will be even less of those who can penetrate into the
lost world concealed by the popular names: they are so long with us
we imagine they are part of a permanent tradition.

	Now we can only have an idea of what we lost, when Christian
unity was destroyed, through knowing how spontaneous and common was
formerly the expression of it in human affairs.  It is always in the
trivial, the common-place, that our habits and convictions can best
be measured, and the flowers named above were once called Our Lady's
Keys, Our Lady's Thimble, Mary's Candle, Our Lady's Pin Cushion.
Suddenly, like a dream ending, we begin to appreciate how terrible,
how unbridged, is the distance separating us from medieval piety. We
are complex and muddled, uncertain of our postulates or allegiance.
It takes an entirely different view of things to see in the shape of
a leaf a mirror wherein Our Lady may have gazed.

	Some such thoughts probably crossed the minds of two Americans,
John Stokes and Edward McTague, when, a few years back, they heard
the story of a most unique garden in a place called Woods Hole,
Massachusetts.  A certain Mrs. Lillie, of Chicago, had been
responsible for planting there some fifty varieties of plants whose
original preReformation names recalled Our Lady; and it seemed from
her preliminary investigations that there were many more flowers and
plants with titles once designating aspects of Mary's life and
beauty.  Examining some marigolds (Mary Golds) in the garden of his
old friend and teacher Edward McTague, John Stokes mentioned this
story to him.  They were charmed by the lovely custom which looked
so rich in reverence and devotion.  Soon the obvious suggestion was
made.  Would not others like to know of it?  Was there not contained
in it another gentle lever for prying open human hearts ?

	Out of that speculation has emerged a most unusual work,
attractively titled 'Mary's Gardens'; a work designed to restore Our
Lady's reign over yet another neglected area of human activity.

	The Americans' idea was simple (in its genesis), to make
accessible to amateur gardeners, and in many cases simply to make
amateur gardeners where before were none! seeds for planting a Mary
Garden; to increase the consciousness of Our Lady as a constant
companion; to revitalize leisure hours now becoming increasingly
devoted to flying from reality.  In short, believing the ways of
love are innumerable, they wished to open up another avenue of
approach to Christ.  The idea is charming and fanciful.  Is there
anything solid in it ? Does it give the mind a hold on deep truths?

	Its creators are convinced it does; and they strongly emphasize
one cardinal feature of their programme.  The ultimate objective is
not merely to call public notice to the Lady-names of flowers.  That
is but the opening wedge, one means, according to Mr. Stokes, 'of
restoring the prayerful, religious sense and true dignity to
gardening,' in its turn one means to fill the whole of life with its
vast abandoned content of religious meaning.  It has, too, an
additional local value in the United States, where people are sunk
in the insecurity of modern agricultural production and
distribution, so mechanized and centralized that it has divided an
entire nation from the sources of its life; as if that society were
determined to reverse the divine condemnation setting man down to
eat the fruits of the earth only with 'labour and toil.'

	One should pause before carelessly estimating what benefits
might spring from reinstituting in family life even this small and
intimate kind of manual labour.  We are not too far in our own
country from the state of mind which sees perfection in the machine,
in industry, in a regimented system of commerce.

	From Mary's Gardens we can learn many lessons.  Again hear Mr.
Stokes, from his article in the American Jesuit weekly journal,
America:

	"There is much more to the religious tradition on gardening than
the existence of symbolical names for flowers.  In the garden we
participate in the fumdamental relationship between God, man and
nature, as set forth in God's command to Adam to 'subdue the earth.'
We deal with essences, the seeds; and with substances, the grown
plants.  We see the effects of original sin in the disease and death
which enter our gardens each season.  We also witness the promise of
our resurrection the following Spring: ' . . . but if (the grain of
wheat) dies it brings forth much fruit.' And we learn again to trust
in God's Providence: 'consider the lilies' . . . "

	Rich material for meditation is here in abundance, its roots
deep in a tough, true philosophical and theological soil.  And for
those who find no reward in technical speculation there are other
glories: planting, nourishing, tending, the mind raised towards God
with the growth of the living things beneath one's hands. One need
not necessarily advert, intellectually, to principles in order to be
fed by truthful actions and deeds.

	In fact in this work is a profusion of motives and returns.  A
constant fidelity in little things will lead to great fidelity in
important things.  The habits we form, which move, guide, protect
us, are best supported on simple, familiar acts.  Contemporary
existence, its strong sap withdrawn by the stimulation of artificial
life in cinema, magazines and books, is quite without real colour
and imagination.  Sick organisms return to health in progressive
stages.  Recourse to home gardening, strengthened by values peculiar
to this kind is one way to awaken atrophied faculties and forces,
introducing into souls suppleness, change and variety, teaching the
laws of growth. We plant the seed. God gives the increase.

  	And one may discern a still deeper inspiration in Mary's
Gardens, suggested by the founders in their use of the term
'steward' to describe the gardener; and in the detailed and accurate
instructions provided for whoever plans a Mary Garden.  They thereby
emphasize a Christian truth difficult for the Christian to
understand and live.

	Co-operation is necessary between man and God, not to help out
God, but because that is the law of His own creation.  Mary's
Gardens supplies an indisputable message, with its abundant evidence
of the steward's importance, that Providence does not displace human
effort.  Doubtless God knows we want the tea placed before us on the
table.  We cannot have it unless we ourselves raise the cup.  And we
cannot raise the cup without wanting it.

	John Stokes, whose ancestry is English-Irish, and Edward McTague,
whose ancestry is Irish, incorporate the best of modern Western
civilization: America, Ireland, Britain.  The English loved Our Lady
and so gave flowers their Lady-names; the Irish persevered; and it
is from America we expect new energy to eome.

	In 1951 a ten-variety 'Our Lady's Garden ' was made available
to the public.  This year these men are able to offer twelve and
twenty-five variety 'Gardens,' and some 750 were received by clergy,
religious, schools, societies, housewives, children, etc.  The
magnitude of their efforts is hidden by the statistics: exhaustive
historical research into old names, investigations with trained
horticulturalists to determine cultural characteristics and
availability of seeds, the procuring of seeds from Europe and
America; they designed and constructed their own filling and sealing
equipment for packaging.  All mailing and correspondence is handled
by them alone.

	John Stokes and Edward McTague are not in the seed business,
nor are they dominated by the idea of big sales. These men are
selling work . . . for a lifetime, they hope.  The person who can
plant a garden of Our Lady's flowers without his reflection turning
occasionally in her direction will be rare.  And Mary is, as always,
the high swift glorious road to Christ.  This points to another
fact: the garden they wish to nourish is within.  Mary's Gardens is
an appeal to the heart.

	'This is thy stewardship,' concludes an early sixteenth century
English gardening pamphlet, 'whatsoever thou be.  And if thou
carelessly omit to do thy office thou makest a hard account for
thyself, which God forbid if it be His good pleasure . . . therefore
love God above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself.'


Reprinted with permission.