Tyler State Park - Part 3 -Tyler Rose Garden

Halfway through our week of camping at Tyler State Park we had to go to town for some errands and decided to visit Tyler Rose Garden while we were there. It was well worth the trip, even if we had not needed to go for other reasons.

There were several bushes of this gorgeous rose. It's name is "Cinco de Mayo." Coincidentally we were visiting on the actual fifth of May. 

We ate a picnic lunch in the shade with a view of ... more roses!

I noticed that the "grass" next to our picnic blanket was actually a mixture of plants. Even a wild strawberry was in the mix.
I wondered if they had intentionally planted a variety of shade loving ground covers to give the appearance of grass because I know it is difficult to grow traditional grass in shade. I thought about asking their gardeners about it. But then we overheard one of them complain to another one that the grass was mostly weeds.
Well, I thought it was clever, anyway.

There are other pretty things to look at too. 

We visited the gift shop to get a Mother's Day card for my Mom. This is a view from the balcony of the building where the gift shop is. There is also a museum about the Texas rose festival and the rose industry. I preferred to look at the actual roses. But I just read a blurb about the museum on their website and it looks like it might be worth seeing sometime. Maybe we can visit the museum if we go back again. 

Another view from the balcony

My energy ran out long before we saw all of the roses! But hopefully this will give you some idea how beautiful it was.

The roses are at their best in Spring and Fall. October is the next recommended time to go if you missed this Spring. 

Next week will be the 4th and, probably, final installment of our trip to Tyler State Park - Canoeing on the lake.

Note: John took a few of the above photos.