April showers have definitely brought May flowers, especially in the Redwood Quad. Just one step into the sunlight and you will be enveloped by the fragrance.

The four-year old carefully cultivated Redwood Rose Garden was originally dedicated to the classified staff, which includes janitors, secretaries, and CEA staff, but it now holds a very special presence at Redwood High — both through its beauty and its pungent fragrances.

Jean Leutwyler, the principal’s secretary, has the good fortune of being able to view and smell the roses out the window by her desk.

“Those roses do so well out there because they get the morning sun.  So in the morning they’re happy, I’m happy with the sun streaming in,” Leutwyler said.

Leutwyler brings the roses into her office as well, to be constantly enjoyed by the entire office and all its visitors.

“The roses are for teachers and staff to pick and we’re encouraged to do that,” Leutwyler said. “The more that you trim the bushes the better it is, the more roses the bushes produce.”

The garden is located in the west side of the Quad, and the Campus Beautification Committee, composed of parents and students, takes dutiful care of maintaining the roses.

“It’s really nice, the effort the PTSA puts into maintaining this garden, and it means a lot to the staff and the teachers that come out here and pick the roses too,” Leutwyler said.

The PTSA received the original idea from art teacher Liz Lauter.

“I wanted there to be this place of beauty,” Lauter said. “It looked like a perfect place all along that sunny wall in the Quad.”

Lauter has always been a supporter of creating new gardens. She was pivotal in creating a community garden in San Geronimo and grew up with an avid rose gardening mother.  She also helped with the founding of the garden outside her classroom.

“I’m into creating environments, I’m sensitive about that,” Lauter said. “I really believe that having an environment changes how you feel, and changes how you act and think.”

Lauter needed the help and support of the

administration to make her dream a reality.

Then-principal Nancy Neu had little faith in the garden prospering, according to Lauter, as a garden in that same exact spot had failed and left a mess of ivy and dead flowers. But the foundation helped fund the project while parents, students, and rose-growing experts came together to create the garden.

“That’s what brings the community together — to have a common beautiful project together,” Lauter said.

The Rose Garden started out as a giant pile of manure, but quickly transformed into a row of freshly planted roses with a new irrigation system, with special stones set in between so that anyone could reach in and cut the roses.

“It had kind of a smelly beginning,” Lauter said. “We spread it out in the beds and of course the next day all of the administrators had this smell of manure coming in their windows.”

Leutwyler said that Redwood is unique in having its own bountiful rose garden, and that they have a very desirable location situated in the Quad.

“That’s why they do so well I guess, because of the morning sun and then it’s also sheltered from the deer and the wind,” Leutwyler said. “You can see, they just thrive in this spot.”

According to Lauter, the fragrances of the roses cultivated at Redwood are fabulous.

“Don’t ever buy grocery store roses, they don’t have any fragrance,” Lauter said.