News

Mary, Mary how does your garden grow?

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

	ROSARY GARDEN: Volunteers plant flowers in the center of the new rosary garden at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral. Parishioner Marcy Pfiefer is overseeing the garden, along with a Mary and a St. Francis garden. The gardens will be dedicated Aug. 23. (Rick Evans photo)
	Garden dedication is Aug. 23 What: Blessing of Mary garden, rosary garden and St. Francis Garden. All in attendance will receive a tied rosary, hand-made by parish member, Gary Northway, and blessed by Msgr. Klister. Where: St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, 139 S. Madison St., Green Bay When: 9:30 a.m., Aug. 23 Marian title: One of the many titles of Mary is "the mystical rose." Did you know: Flowers especially tied to Mary include the lily, violet (modesty), iris (sword of sorrow), marigold and forget-me-nots ("Mary's eyes").

GREEN BAY -- It's something many children do: give flowers to their mothers.

And, in a way, that is what Jesus is doing now, through his brothers and sisters at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral - giving flowers to his mother through a Mary garden.

Mary gardens officially trace back to 15th century St. Mary Gardens in Scotland and England, but may actually be derived from monastery cloister gardens from four centuries earlier. They are filled with flowers that are named for Mary or have a legend about her connected with them.

Whatever the origin, Marcy Pfeifer, a member of the cathedral parish, heard about Mary gardens while looking for a way to spruce up the worn yard and overgrown bushes around the parish office and cathedral church.

Her sister mentioned the Web site www.mgardens.org, founded by John Stokes (who died last November). It contained historical facts, ideas, plans, suggestions and links to other Mary gardens, including one at the National Shrine of the Assumption in Washington, D.C.

"I was just so excited. This was just what we had to do here," said Pfeifer. "I met with Msgr. (Roy Klister, rector of the cathedral). I started to tell him all the legends and history. Then I said, 'Can we do that here? We have these two areas.' He said to me, 'Pick a side and start. I said, 'Both.'"

Since then, the gardens have grown to include three areas - a perennial St. Francis garden, a rose arbor garden with a Mary statue (originally from the class of 1954 from the now-closed St. Joseph Academy), and a four-level rosary garden. (The rosary garden is divided, by color, for each of the mysteries of the rosary: red for luminous, white for joyful, purple for sorrowful and gold for glorious.)

The gardens will be dedicated on Saturday, Aug. 23, at 9:30 a.m. by Msgr. Klister.

Msgr. Klister has found the project, started late in 2006, to be unifying.

"It was amazing," he said. "People who weren't necessarily active up in the parish until this point took a very strong interest in being able to express their devotion and faith through contributing hours and also in learning about our devotion to the mother of Jesus Christ.

"It was incredible, the number of volunteers," Msgr. Klister added. "There were 12, 20 volunteers, and all of them were bending down, tilling the soil, putting in plants and moving soil. It was a beehive of activity. And all ages. We had people who almost had to have canes to get around, to those just old enough to be able to walk - but carrying a little chunk of dirt from one spot to another."

There have been three planting sessions - one of spring bulbs last November, the Mary garden itself in June and the rosary garden in July.

Pfeifer drew on the expertise of many - from Tilmanns Landscaping for the plans, to Zeise Construction for stones for the rosary beads, to florists, pavers and parish gardeners.

Thomas Beno, a member of the parish who is a master gardener, attended many of the planning sessions. "(Marcie) got good advice from as many different people as she could," Beno said. "And she respected their advice. When we'd sit down to make the selections of plants, I'd told her about the experiences I've had with plants in this climate, what's been successful here."

He's especially fond of the rose arbor over Mary's statue. "I've had such a successful growth of roses over my own white trellis. I hope she can have as many rose blossoms over that trellis."

Marge Fuchs, another parish member, "grew up in a greenhouse family." She works at Schroeder's Flowerland each day, and then spends hours watering plants inside and outside the cathedral. She was thrilled to offer advice on plants for the gardens - from bulbs to perennials.

"You have to use both perennials and annuals," Fuchs said. "Perennials only have color certain times of the season."

But more important than flower care - although they are still in need of volunteers to water the gardens - Fuchs said, is how people have laid personal claim to the garden.

"What I really loved," she said, "was when we needed wood violets, and we put a notice in the bulletin asking for donations from people's yards. People just adored being able to have part of their yard in the Mary's garden."

Fuchs hopes that, as the garden gets larger and plants need to be divided in coming years, people will be able to take some home.

"I think it would be wonderful to offer to parishioners to have a little of Mary's garden at their houses."

Despite the volunteers and donations from contractors, cost of the Mary garden was a concern.

"One older parishioner asked, 'How are we going to pay for this?'" Pfeifer recalled. "I said, if the good Lord wants a garden for his mother, it will happen. Then we had the idea of having people donate a bead in the rosary in honor of someone. Those names will go on a plaque in the garden. That generated enough funds so that we could do this."

Other donations came from many areas - from mothers who had lost children, to strangers Pfeifer met in a store and told about her project, to downspout work donated by Whitefield Roofing that re-coppered the cathedral's towers last year. Pfeifer got used to asking people if they were Catholic because "it's hard to explain the rosary if you're not." Another parish member who is a realtor, donated the information boxes. And there is a perpetual fund to maintain the gardens.

But this is only the start, Pfeifer said. "I would love for this to grow."

Through a newly established Mary Garden Guild, she plans to have lectures and classes, and to use the garden as part of the regular tours that take place in the cathedral.

"It's a devotion to Mary. It's understanding her and listening to her as a mother - learning from the world's best mother," said Pfeifer, who is a former Ashwaubenon art teacher and now the mother of two, Annie and Thomas.

Pfeifer said that one of the biggest lessons she's learned from the Mary Garden project is to trust the Lord.

"I've been trying to apply some of this to my own life," she said, "and not worry as much and have more faith. After all, who puts a woman who works at Schroeder's at your fingertips? Why do we worry? He's going to take care of everything. ... Even our mistakes have worked out right. Things like that really increase your faith. I don't believe in coincidence, it's all him."

The gardens continue to expand. Fuchs grew morning glories from seed and they now drape the rectory's balcony above the garden area. And Pfeifer, who has plans for a Mary herb garden, is more than willing to offer her notes and plans to other parishes.