Mary Gardens

Flower gardens are one of my favorite spring, summer, and fall hobbies. A number of years ago, I found a great list of flowers, both annuals and perennials, that have common names related to Mary. Establishing gardens out here on the farm may take me a few years, but you can be sure I'll be referring to my Marian flower list when I start planning.

Roses bushes are a staple in my gardens; and I especially like any Morden variety of rose bush. They are the hardiest I have found. I do no have to take any special care in the fall to ensure their survival to the next spring. Yes, I do trim back the dead canes in the spring, but I've never lost a Morden over winter. Someday I will have time to properly care for and maintain a tea rose in our climate, but I am not at that point in my life right now.


Gardens Give Mary Glory

These are the loveliest of her litanies,
These are gardens where the glad abounding earth
Still gush the Holy Spirit's primal mirth
In endlessly renewed diversities.

These from the faithful and fecund soil
Are generations that have called her blest,
They magnify her always without rest
While man's sad cyclic ages still uncoil.

They beat the perfumed air with noiseless sound,
They ring out her renown, freshly repeat
Her names taught them by men whose pulses beat
With God's great rhythm of the Seasons' round.

Each garden gives her glory, chants her praise
Even in harsh and hostile places where
Men have forgotten gentleness and prayer,
And what still canticles waft through their days.

Who plants a garden builds a carillon
To peal her praises witht he pulse of time,
And laud her with the earth's loveliest, lasting chime
In bright, unalterable antiphon.

-Liam Brophy