Tyler Roses

We are staying in Tyler, the rose capital of Texas. The major UK rose supplier David Austin is here within walking distance of our campsite.

Rose cultivation started here in 1900 to replace the peach growing industry that was wiped out by disease and bad weather. It was found that roses thrived in the climate and soil. Peaking between the 1940s and 70s, between 15 and 20 million rosebushes a year were produced in addition to cut flowers.

The industry has dropped back since then but still retains many nurseries, all in the Tyler area. Tyler City has a municipal rose garden and museum, and a rose festival each year in October, to take place in a few weeks. This is a small part of the rose garden.

Notice anything? Or rather lack of it? Yes, roses! The rose bushes are all there, literally thousands of them, beautifully laid out and labelled, but bearing few blooms. That’s because it’s the end of the season. An odd time, you might think, to hold a rose festival when there aren’t many roses. However, we searched out several spectacular blossoms, as below:

The park itself was delightful and interestingly laid out. This is the summerhouse and paths. Plenty of place for the kids to run.

Behind the summerhouse, a series of carp ponds. The kids now need to stop running or they’re in with the carp. No good running in the rosebushes either, they’re too thorny.

As a counter to the ordered ranks of roses there is a conventional garden with a winding path. We recognised some plants grown in the UK but reaching huge size here or indoor only back home. Here were some nice colour contrasts.

The garden becomes more exotic as we proceed through, with a cactus section and lush jungly plants that we couldn’t ID. The photo also captures a lush, jungly looking lurker.

We discovered that the rose festival was mainly about floats with people dressed in rose themed costumes, but it still seems about as logical as holding the Chelsea Flower Show in January.