A Mary Garden is a garden, filled with flowers, plants and trees named for Our Lady and Jesus, designed to be a place of beauty that reminds us of our Lord and our Lady, allows one to experience God's creation, and invites prayer and contemplation.

St. Benedict had a rose garden ("rosary") at his monastery in the 4th c., but the first garden we know of that was specifically dedicated to Mary was one created by the Irish St. Fiacre in the 7th c. The earliest record of a garden explicitly called a "Mary Garden" involves a "fifteenth century monastic accounting record of the purchase of plants "for S. Mary's garden" by the sacristan of Norwich Priory, in England."

So many flowers were named for Jesus, Mary, the angels, holy places, etc. -- enough such that you can create a garden focused on specific aspects of Mary and Jesus' lives, such as His Passion or her sorrows. Enchanting names, like "Our Lady's Tears" (spiderwort), "Christ's-Cross Flower" (Summer phlox), "Joseph's Coat" (Amaranthus), "Pentecost Rose" or "Mary's Rose" (peony), and "Our Lady's Mantle" (Morning Glory), abounded. Sadly, during the Protestant rebellion and the rise of secularism, many of these flowers were re-named yet again with more wordly names but, of course, these flowers still exist and to many Catholic gardeners, their religious names are still meaningful.

You can plant flowers whose names and form evoke the Fourteen Stations of the Cross or the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary so that by walking through your garden you not only enjoy its natural beauty, but practically "make the Stations" or "walk the Rosary," turning your backyard , schoolyard, or churchyard into a holy shrine (especially when accented with beautiful statuary).

If you don't have lots of room, you can make mini-gardens on your patio or apartment's balcony, or grow miniature plants in dishes or terraria for inside your home (nice gifts for the homebound!). If you do have lots of room, especially if you live in the country, consider setting up a little roadside shrine and garden so people passing by can stop and rest at a beautiful sacred place.

The St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish's (in Pennsylvania) Mary Garden Dedication Booklet includes the following, which will give you an idea about how Mary Gardens recall the lives of Mary and Jesus. The booklet asks the reader to visit the garden and think of Mary:

"Picture her eyes (Forget-Me-Nots), her hair (Maidenhair Fem), her five fingers (Potentilla). Think about her apparel: her smock (Morning Glory), her veil (Baby's Breath), her nightcap (Canterbury Bells), her gloves (Foxglove), and her shoes (Columbine). Remember her attributes: Mary's humility (Violet), the fruitful virgin (Strawberry), Mary's queenship (Virgin Lily), Mary's Flower of God (English Daisy), Mary's glory (Saint John's Wort), and Our Lady's Faith (Veronica).

Think about her life: The Bethlehem Star (Bellflower), the Christmas Flower (Poinsettia), Lady's Bedstraw (Dianthus - Mary used bedstraw to prepare a bed for Jesus), the Epiphany flower (Chrysanthemum), the Flight into Egypt (Fig Tree - legend says that the Holy Family ate the fruit of this tree during their flight into Egypt), Our Lady's Tears (Lily of the Valley - tiny white nodding bell-shaped flowers can be likened to a train of tears), Our Lady's Tresses (Asparagus Fern - legend holds that at the foot of the cross, Mary, in. deep agony, tore out a tress of her hair which Saint John preserved), Mary's Bitter Sorrow (Dandelion), and the Assumption (Hosta - Plantation Lily blooms at the time of the Feast of the Assumption)."