Construction in a side chapel of St George’s Roman Catholic Catheldral, Southwark, London, photographed 2 May 2023, 23 days after Easter.

This differs from the standard Easter garden in that it lacks the empty tomb and the hill with three crosses.  It also includes figures, which are usually absent from the gardens prepared in Anglican churches, though they were present in a Catholic garden photographed in Banbury, Oxfordshire, late in April 2023.

The flowers used are potted double-flowered kalanchoes, Kalanchoe blossfeldiana, moth orchids, Phalaeonpsis cvs., also included is a vase of wheat, Triticum aestivum, and at either side containers holding palm fronds, possibly symbolic of Christ’s victory over death.

Comments

From Jane Lawson: Probably inspired by the account in Mark 16: 1-20, where Peter refused to believe Mary.  It looks as if there is a centurion, the angel who guarded the tomb, and the two Marys who stayed at the foot of the cross.

From Ian Mcintyre:  In my school [St Peter’s Church of England Primary School, Walworth, London] all the classes from Nursery to Year 6 make an Easter garden every year.  They start after Ash Wednesday and sprinkle the ashes on them to help them  to grow.  They are much simpler affairs than the one in the photo.  They have been dismantled now [3 May].