DUANE
Duane's take
The way the marker in Smith County tells it — and I'm inclined to believe every word — this is the story of how one patch of East Texas became the rose capital of the entire United States. Now, before you go thinking that's an exaggeration, hold on. We'll get there.
It starts with the ground itself. Sandy soil. Year-round rainfall.
A long growing season. The Tyler area just happened to sit on a combination of conditions that makes rose propagation about as natural as breathing. The land was practically asking for it.
First known commercial production got going here in the 1870s. Two of the early pioneers were G. A.
McKee and Mathew Shamburger — Shamburger born in 1827, gone by 1888 — and these men were selling rose bushes right alongside other nursery stock. Not exactly a rose empire yet, but a beginning. Things hummed along, and then the 1920s arrived and more nurserymen started growing roses in earnest.
Business expanded. And in 1924, a man named A. F.
Watkins introduced irrigation as a new growing method, and that pushed production further still. By October of 1933, there was enough to celebrate. The Texas Rose Festival was started that month, partly to publicize what Tyler had quietly been building for decades.
Then came the science. In the 1930s, J. C.
Ratsek, Dr. E. W.
Lyle, and others from the Tyler substation of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station began serious scientific plant research. That work found its organizational legs in 1945 with the formation of the Texas Rose Foundation, Inc. And then — 1952 — the city of Tyler created the Tyler Rose Garden.
Twenty-two acres of municipal park. The nurseries donate the many varieties of plants, and the city cares for them. Twenty-two acres of roses, tended and given freely.
Now here's where we land that number I promised you. In 1973, local nurseries shipped roses around the world — bushes and flowers — and the value of what left Smith County that year totaled nine million dollars. Nine million dollars.
And that's just one year. But the number that really stops you cold is this one: one-half of all the rose bushes produced each year in the entire United States come from the Tyler area. Half.
Of the whole country. From one patch of sandy East Texas soil that happened to get a little rain all year long. Some places are just made for something.
Tyler, it turns out, was made for roses.
What the marker says
A combination of sandy soil, year-round rainfall, and a long growing season make the Tyler area ideal for rose propagation. First known commercial production began here in the 1870s when industry pioneers such as G. A. McKee and Mathew Shamburger (1827-88) sold rose bushes along with other nursery stock. Business expanded in the 1920s as more nurserymen began growing roses. Production was increased by new growing methods such as irrigation, introduced in 1924 by A. F. Watkins. The Texas Rose Festival was started in Oct. 1933 to publicize the industry. Scientific plant research, begun in the 1930s by J. C. Ratsek, Dr. E. W. Lyle, and others from the Tyler substation of the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, was implemented by organization of the Texas Rose Foundation, Inc., in 1945. The Tyler Rose Garden, a 22-acre municipal park, was created in 1952. Nurseries donate the many varieties of plants, which are cared for by the city. Today the rose industry is vital to the economy of Smith County. In 1973 the value of bushes and flowers shipped around the world by local nurseries totaled $9,000,000. One-half of the rose bushes produced each year in the United States come from the Tyler area.