Garden Greetings : Signs of the thymes? Sentiments of all kinds are popping up in today’s properly equipped gardens.

What’s this? Signs in the garden?

As unlikely as it might seem, signs of all kinds are the latest garden phenomenon, and one may be the perfect holiday present for the gardener on your gift list.

Mary Lou Heard thinks it began with a simple sign made to hang on the front door that told visitors, “I’m Out Back in the Garden,” so they wouldn’t stand there too long knocking. At Heard’s Country Gardens in Westminster, that one sign has grown to dozens with countless sayings, poems, hymns and homilies, and they’re selling like hot cakes.

The signs may be painted on wood, pressed into terra-cotta tiles, scratched onto concrete or molded in metal. They cost anywhere from a few dollars to a hundred or more for some very large hand-painted kinds.

All have something to say, and you’re likely to find messages anywhere in the garden.

On the front gate, a simple hand-painted sign hanging from a rusty wire might say, “Welcome to My Garden” or “Garden Tours 5.” Over by some herbs, attached to a wall, a much larger sign quips, “Never Enough Thyme,” and a little further down the garden path, a sign attached to a wooden stake proclaims, “My Garden Was Perfect Last Week.” By the feeder, one advertises, “Birds Wanted.”

Choose from homey and often humorous maxims like, “Let All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers” or homilies such as, “Bloom Where God Plants You.”

The gardener’s thoughts can even be found underfoot, scratched into a concrete steppingstone. “Plant Till You Drop” says one, and “Flowers, Herbs and Hugs Found Here” reads another.

If the person you know gardens in containers, many of these messages can be stuck in pots. The Garden Gate, a flower shop in Yorba Linda, sells a variety of large and small signs, including a number on stakes that will work in the ground or in containers.

The most popular signs are made of painted and distressed wood so they don’t look too new. One of the craftspeople who makes these signs for retailers, Susan Haight in Perris, thinks people like them because “they’re affordable and add color to the garden, no matter what the season.”

Some add what could be called seasonal color. You can get bright red signs that say, “Merry Christmas” with sleighs or snowmen painted on them, and there are signs with pumpkins and American flags for other holidays.

For that someone special, there are signs that say, “Grandma’s Garden” or “Dad’s Garden.”

Tina Booth of Santa Ana, another artisan who makes signs for the garden, has even done custom portraits of gardeners, painted on wooden cutouts that peek out from behind a shrub or flower bed to surprise guests.

“The most popular are the animal crossing signs,” said Jamie Platt, who manages Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar. These might say, “Cat Crossing,” for those cat fanciers, or “Duck Crossing,” for those with more exotic tastes in animals. In most gardens, you can’t go wrong with “Snail Crossing,” also available.

There is even an international symbol for “No Snails Allowed,” with a bright red circle and slash through it, printed over a picture of a snail, though it’s a bit of wishful thinking.

Platt thinks that gardeners like the signs because they take the formality out of a garden and make it a little more fun. “But I’m just guessing,” he said, “I really don’t know why they’re suddenly so popular.”

Mary Lou Heard is convinced that what these signs really say is: “We love this little place.”

“People want to announce to the whole world that they love their gardens,” she said, “and signs are one way of doing that.”

Sources:

Heard’s Country Gardens, Westminster.

Roger’s Gardens, Corona del Mar.

Palos Verdes Begonia Farm, Walteria.

The Garden Gate, Yorba Linda.