Posted 9:10 pm Friday, April 23, 2010
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Rose Dedication Service Set Sunday
Rose Sunday ceremonies honoring Tyler roses and the industry that established Tyler as the "Rose Capital of the Nation" are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the Tyler Rose Garden Center atrium, 420 Rose Park Drive, said Julie Kidwell, Texas Rose Festival executive director and Tyler Rose Museum curator.
The Sunday Dedication Service heralds the new rose blooms of the 2010 season, Ms. Kidwell said.
The event is open to the public. Texas Rose Festival dignitaries, including Rose Queen Mary Lawson Bracken Walden, will be on hand during the ceremony.
Walter Wilhelmi, chairman of the Tyler Parks and Recreation Board, will emcee the ceremonies. Patricia Lewis Chambers, Texas Rose Festival queen of 1958, will offer the invocation. Entertainment will be provided by the GCS String Ensemble. Rose Sunday is sponsored by the Tyler Parks and Recreation Department, the Tyler Rose Museum and the Texas Rose Festival Association.
From late April until frost, the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden blooms with more than 35,000 rose bushes, exhibiting approximately 500 varieties of roses. More than 100,000 people visit the Rose Garden annually, Ms. Kidwell said.
The rose industry, which began at the turn of the century, continues today with approximately one-fifth of all commercial rose bushes produced in the United States grown in Smith County, while more than one-half of the nation's rose bushes are packaged and shipped from this area, she said.
