Planting A Garden With Intention
"The garden meets the cards" is more than a musing or mantra for me, it's a reminder of a place where the garden in my mind meets tactile magic: the soil in seeds, the sprouts and blooms sprung up before my fingertips.
Be it arranging bouquets with intention toward the phases of New and Full Moons or plotting out Spring, Summer, or Fall garden varieties, a conscious eye toward botanical meaning is central to the process. Simply put, the heart somehow knows what the soil hopes to grow.
Spring felt almost in the air this week, so in honor of its beacon of new beginnings, I wanted to visit the intention behind blooms past and the blooms I dream budding up softly on the new season's horizon.
This Full Moon bouquet is one of my favorites from 2017. Reflective of the Pythia Botanica Oracle, it carried blooms of Dahlia (Fate), Protea (Sea Change), Poppy (Sedate) and Queen Anne's Lace (Sanctuary) — botanicals for self-care, transformation and peace.
While I love finding new varieties to tend to, many of the flowers in my garden are regulars that have touched me in some way, and I rejoice in meeting them season after season. The Cup & Saucer Vine is just one example of this, sprouting into my world in 2019 when I needed it the most, teaching me patience and healing during a time otherwise filled with grief. I've continued to grow this bloom since then, and I look forward to tending to its trailing vines all Summer long, complete with the reward of its bell-shaped blooms come Autumn.
Keeping a garden where the botanicals hold such depth and meaning, and being able to read my cards with the very blooms depicted, has been one of the most joyful experiences. So I thought I'd go more into depth with this practice, taking you along for the journey.
In my Garden This Season
This season, many of the blooms I've shared with you over the years will return with some new buds to greet. My little English Rose garden is expanding with five new varieties grown from bareroots (more on this in June), a host of new Dahlias grown from tubers (more on this in May), my family of otherworldly Hibiscus and Passiflora will return (more on this in July), and a host of new growth from seed will make both returning and debut appearances.
I am very thoughtful in what I grow, both in what the flowers mean to me and in what I can fit in my little garden. I usually reserve the prized (i.e. rare) ground space for larger blooms
—all of my Dahlia Tubers get planted in the ground, along with a few of my English Roses, Foxglove, Queen Anne's Lace, Cup & Saucer Vine, Cosmos, Zinnia and Iris. The rest of the blooms are grown in the terracotta pots or wooden barrels I've collected over the years. If you live in an urban area, as well, or have a space that is small, container gardening can be a blessing with beautiful results.
Some of the blooms I'm growing from seed this year were heavily inspired by my work with them during previous seasons, as well as from my decks. Garden planning is a months-long ritual, and along with weeding through my sketchbooks and researching all of the new varieties I can, I also break out my budding botanical works to pick future blooms.
This season, some of those include:
Cosmos - Poised Stardust in the Pythia Botanica, a call for balance, & The World in the Maiden.
Zinnia - The Lovers in the Ophidia Rosa Tarot.
Queen Anne's Lace - IV of Pentacles in the Ophidia Rosa & Sanctuary in the Pythia Botanica, a call for self care.
Nasturtium - Begin Forever in the Pythia Botanica Oracle, a called to forever transform and grow.
Foxglove - Fear Forgotten in the Maiden & Unspoken, Unsummoned in the Pythia Botanica.
Poppy - II of Cups in the Ophidia Rosa Tarot & Remember Dreams in the Maiden.
Cup & Saucer Vine - The Echoed Path in the Maiden.
Flowering Tobacco - Temperance in the Maiden.
As the season allows and I am able to plant more and more from these works, I'll share the intention behind each bloom with you. For now, the above seeds are already in soil and starting to sprout.