eh 
are glacial boulders deposited during the Ice Age by one of the 
continental ice sheets which terminated on Long Island, and which 
were dug up during grading operations on the Botanie Garden 
grounds. They make up in authenticity and geological interest 
for what they may lack in value for plant culture. They vary 
in size from small cobblestones to boulders six feet or more in 
greatest dimension. Their story has been told in a Garden Guide 
and twenty-eight of them have been labeled with bronze tablets, 
provided by Mr. Edward C. Blum, Chairman of the Board of 
Trustees of the Institute, which give their composition and history. 
Some of the boulders came from nearby points, but one traveled 
with the glacial ice from the southeastern Adirondack Mountains, 
pany 
about two hundred and fifty miles. 
Probably there is no association of season and flowers so uni- 
rsal as that of June and roses. Because of this fact, the opening 
the Rose Garden in June, 1928, occupying an area of about an 
acre in the Botanic Garden, must have been as greatly appreciated 
by the general public as it was by rosarians. With his usua 
vision, Dr. Gager felt that since a rose garden would be of great 
heauty and educational value as a part of the Botanic Garden, it 
might be wise to publish in his annual report of the year 1926 a 
ve 
of 
— 
sketch of the proposed rose garden as designed by the consulting 
landscape architect. By unusual good fortune, the design and 
idea appealed to Mr. Walter V. Cranford, who happened to see the 
annual report, and shortly thereafter he and Mrs. Cranford gave 
the Garden a sum of $10,000, later increased to $15,000, to realize 
these plans. 
Work on the garden began in June, 1927. Every effort was 
made to plan carefully, so that a minimum of grading and moving 
of soil was required. It was disconcerting, however, to find two 
old roads just under the surface soil, which added to the diffi- 
culties of making the soil fit for rose culture. Many roses were 
generously donated by nurserymen and rose growers, and by the 
following spring the garden was well planted. In 1936, the Rose 
Arc, an extension of the Rose Garden, was given by Mrs. Cranford 
as a memorial to her husband. The roses in the arc are planted 
around a central pool. 
