Texas Rose Festival
Tyler Rose Garden, 1900 W. Front St., Tyler
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The waitress in Tyler asked if I was wearing rose perfume. I explained it was the effect of walking through the Rose Garden Center and, of course, the gardens themselves. The roses on my visit this weekend were recovering marvelously from record heat and drought. They were filled with enough blooms to scent the air and bursting with buds ready to open in time for the annual Texas Rose Festival this Thursday through Sunday, October 13-16.
The 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting Thursday at the Rose Garden Center, 420 Rose Park Dr. (adjacent to the garden), opens the festival. But the Rose Show, displaying more than 14,000 roses, will already occupy the garden center beginning at 9 a.m.. The show continues from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The rose show, as well as the gardens, are free.
Pageantry and glitz are as much as part of the festival as the commercially-grown roses that have filled fields around Tyler since the 1930’s. Although the coronation of this year’s festival queen, Morgan Elizabeth Rippy, is by ticket only, everyone may see her and her court Saturday at the morning parade and afternoon Queen’s Tea.
The parade begins at 9 a.m. at Glenwood Boulevard and Front Street. Curbside viewing is, as always, free, but there is a $3 admission fee for the parade’s end at Trinity Mother Frances Stadium (formerly Rose Stadium), 700 Fair Park Dr. The Queen’s Tea, as my waitress particularly wanted to know, is 1-3 p.m. at the Rose Garden, and is also free.
Numerous other events around Tyler are timed to coincide with the Rose Festival. For more information, visit www.TexasRoseFestival.com or call 903-597-3130.
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Fall is a great season for roses in Texas, where all but a few varieties rebloom once temperatures drop below torrid levels. Also showcasing the queen of flowers this weekend in North Texas is RoseDango. It features The Rose Gardens of Farmers Branch, 2610 Valley View Lane in Farmers Branch, Saturday, October 15, and Chambersville Heritage Rose Garden at 7032 County Road 971 in McKinney, Saturday through Sunday, October 15-16. Admission is free. See www.rosedango.com for information and events.
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In more of a roses, schomoses mood? Try the Edom Festival of the Arts, Saturday, October 15, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To get to Edom from Dallas, take I-20 east past Canton to the Van/Edom exit (Exit 540). Turn right on FM 314. For more information and directions, see www.edomfestivalofthearts.com/
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Ongoing -- State Fair of Texas continues through October 23www.bigtex.com/). Autumn at the Arboretum continues at the Dallas Arboretum through November 23 (www.dallasarboretum.org/).
This is my favorite time of year in Dallas. You could throw into the mix of festivals, state fair, etc. a Texas Rangers baseball game. They lost tonight, but a still up 2-1. Just think, they could be in the World Series again. It's lovely weather to be at the ballpark.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Robin. I love fall in Texas, too. (Obviously you wrote "lovely weather" before Wednesday morning's deluge!)
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