Cemetery Rose Garden Tour

Catchy title isn't it! I went on a tour of the Rose Garden at the Sacramento City Cemetery this morning. It was very interesting and I took lots of great pictures. The cemetery was established in 1849 with a ten acre gift from John Sutter to the City of Sacramento. Famous guests include John Sutter, Jr., Mark Hopkins, E.B. Crocker, and Newton Booth. Some of you may wonder who Newton Booth is. Until a couple of weeks ago I had no idea. He was the 11th governor of California from 1871-75. You may wonder why I find this interesting - it's because the neighborhood I live in is called Newton Booth. Pretty cool! Anyway I made sure to take a picture of his resting place when I went to the cemetery - it seemed the appropriate thing to do.

The tour was very interesting. There are a lot of old roses in the garden that are really beautiful. Beside the Rose Garden, there is a Perennial Garden and a Native Plant Garden. All the work here is done by volunteers. In 1986 a group of citizens formed a committee to restore this historic cemetery. They do a tremendous amount of work in creating and maintaining garden areas, photographing and documenting headstones, repairing damaged markers and much more.