Planting a Mary Garden

Center of Focus

The center focus of the garden is typically a statue of Our Blessed Lady. The size of the statue or even the size of the garden does not matter. People with limited space can use a small area and a few select flowers to surround their statue. If you are an apartment dweller, you can set up your Marian Garden in a window box or even use a small statue with a single flowering plant. Reflecting on Marian flowers is the perfect starting point for meditating on the life of Christ through Mary—who always directs us to her Son.

To help set up a Marian Garden, flowers and their meanings follow. This list is far from complete but should give you enough information to begin.

Cheryl Dickow is the president of Bezalel Books and is the author of Elizabeth: A Holy Land Pilgrimage and Our Jewish Roots. Cheryl lives in the beautiful state of Michigan with her husband of 27 years and her three grown sons. Her works appears on a number of faith-based sites and has been published in a variety of magazines and papers.

Devotion

Herbs: Almost any herb can be used in your garden to represent Mary. Soothing and healing herbs represent her heavenly love and mercy. Bitter or sour herbs represent her sorrows and sweet smelling herbs reflect Mary's spiritual sweetness.

Fleur-de-Lis: There is a legend that tells of a fourteenth century knight who was extremely wealthy but renounced his worldly possessions and entered a Cistercian Order of monks. He was very devout but not terribly smart. He could never remember more than the first two words of the Ave Maria prayer even though a teacher gave him numerous lessons. Since he loved Our Lady very much, he would continually repeat the first two words of the prayer, day and night: Ave Maria, Ave Maria. He grew old and when he died, he was buried in the chapel yard of the monastery. As proof that Mary heard and loved his short but earnest prayer, a fleur-de-lis plant sprang up on his grave. On every flower shone in golden letter the words, Ave Maria.

Mary’s entire life was devoted to her Son. When you plant and enjoy a Marian Garden you honor Mary and are able to more fully realize what her “Yes” brought to the world!