John S. Stokes

John Stokes would have loved the blog! The former Quaker and engineer, whose life changed when he learned about the Mary Garden at Woods Hole on Cape Cod, would have been one of the first bloggers.

John and his friend, Edward McTague, visited that Mary Garden, dedicated to Our Lady and filled with flowers named after her, and conceived the idea of promoting “the restoration of old medieval religious names, symbolisms and uses of flowers – especially those associating them with the Blessed Virgin -  to present-day religion and gardening.”  

They envisioned many gardens with Mary’s flowers and set about to encourage their development. In 1951 they founded Mary’s Gardens in Philadelphia as a means for publicizing and restoring the old Mary flower tradition. They advertised in Catholic publications and through the Mary’s Gardens Catalog offered “seeds, bulbs, plants, shrines and literature.”

This was long before the internet and blogging. John corresponded with those who ordered the seeds and plants, traveled to garden shows and wrote articles for Catholic publications to encourage the creation of Mary’s gardens.

He was elated when the internet emerged and on September 8, 1995, set about establishing a website, Mary’s Gardens, which increased his presence and ability to reach a greater audience.

I met John Stokes in June, 1996, when my husband and I traveled to Woods Hole to visit that first Mary Garden. He had come from Philadelphia to meet us and we spent the day together, talking about his work and his dreams. I had been inspired by him and was considering the possibility of writing a book about Mary Gardens (Mary’s Flowers: Gardens, Legends and Meditations was published in 1999 and is currently in its third printing).

The Mary’s Gardens website grew and grew under John’s enthusiastic and prayerful guidance. It became a bit unwieldy and confusing: John sometimes placed the same article in several categories, perhaps to encourage easy access. He also imbedded articles within articles! Recently I was charged with revamping the site and was able to streamline it, eliminate duplication and bring the imbedded articles to light. Some of the section titles were changed to better reflect content and facilitate searches. The reorganized website should be on-line within the next few months.

John Stokes died in 2007. In his will he left the website to the Marian Library at the University of Dayton.

There is so much to discover on the website! In future blogs I will highlight some of the jewels found there. I will tell you about some of my favorite sections and articles, and identify those that relate to the seasons, feast days and holy days and our liturgical year.

Meanwhile, I invite you to join me in continuing the prayerful legacy of honoring Mary in the simple everyday of flowers and gardens. There is an old German saying, “Three things are left from paradise: The flowers with their fragrance, the stars with their brilliance, and the eyes of a little child.” We can imagine our Blessed Mother as she looked into the eyes of her little child, walked through the flowers of her homeland, and looked to the distant stars. Sometimes our hearts need the joy of beauty that John Stokes wished to preserve for us.