The Dean Bond Rose Garden

This garden was established to memorialize Elizabeth Powell Bond, the Dean of Women at Swarthmore College from 1890 to 1906, and her love of roses.

The garden was made possible through a bequest of Robert
Pyle, Class of 1897. Designed in 1956 by the Arboretum’s then Assistant Director, Gertrude Wister, the Dean Bond Rose Garden exhibits the great diversity of the genus Rosa.

Today, the Dean Bond Rose Garden is comprised of over 665 roses, displaying 213 different types. Over the years, it has become a Swarthmore College tradition for each senior to be pinned with a rose on graduation day.