13 - Rose Garden

WAYSIDE LAYOUT: The panel is dark green with a horizontal orientation. There is a photograph on the left and text on the right. It is attached to a fence overlooking the rose garden.  

DESCRIPTION: Colored photograph of a man standing in the sunlit garden, holding a bunch of pink flowers in both hands. The bay and city can be seen in the distance behind him.  

TEXT: Rose Garden. In the 1920’s, the old hospital site below became a center for garden operations, where Army prisoners kept a greenhouse and 50 roses. Flowers from the rose garden decorated the chapel and staff residences. When the Army Left, the garden was adopted by Fred Reichel, the first warden’s secretary. Reichel raised seedlings in the greenhouse for staff and inmate gardeners, experimenting with succulents and native plants suited to the island’s wind and drought.