Los Alamos Garden Club celebrates new deer fence at Memorial Rose Garden
A new deer fence now protects Los Alamos’ Memorial Rose Garden, a 1958 memorial space beside Fuller Lodge maintained by volunteers and county support.
The Los Alamos Garden Club marked completion of the new deer fence at the Memorial Rose Garden with a Friday ribbon-cutting that drew volunteers, local officials and supporters of one of the county’s most recognizable public spaces. Garden Club members were joined by Sarah Khan and County Councilors Theresa Cull and Ryn Herrmann, underscoring that this was more than a ceremonial moment. It was a community investment in a county landmark at 2132 Central Avenue, next to Fuller Lodge.
Parks Superintendent Wendy Parker said the fence was an important step in preserving the Memorial Rose Garden for future generations, and the county has framed the project as a way to keep one of Los Alamos’ cherished public spaces thriving for residents and visitors. That matters because the garden is not just ornamental. It is a memorial landscape tied to the town’s history, public life and civic identity.
County materials say the Memorial Rose Garden was created in 1958 during the Manhattan Project era, when Los Alamos did not yet have a cemetery. Historical and county sources also describe it as the oldest public rose garden in New Mexico, designed the year before by Garden Club member and landscape architect Lila Gardner. The Los Alamos Historical Society says the archive includes records of rose-bush donations made in memory or in honor of loved ones, which gives the garden a role far beyond seasonal color.
The deer-fence campaign began in 2021 under Kersti Rock of the Los Alamos Garden Club after deer damage had become a growing problem. A 2024 county meeting update said the pressure worsened after recent wildfires drove wildlife into town. The new fence now includes ADA-accessible gates, replacing the temporary chicken-wire cages the club had used for three seasons to keep deer away from the roses.
The scale of the effort also reflects the scale of the stewardship behind it. The garden has long hosted weddings, concerts and other community gatherings, so deer damage affects both the plants and the public use of the space. Garden Club volunteers continue to work Monday mornings from April through October, pruning, fertilizing, mulching and weeding the roses. Proceeds from plant sales help fund the club’s Los Alamos High School scholarship and rose-garden supplies, tying the fence project to a broader model of donated labor, local fundraising and county preservation.
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