GCA Grant Helps Restore a Texas Garden

The Tyler Municipal Rose Garden, Tyler, Texas

March 24, 2022

In February of 2021, Winter Storm Uri engulfed much of the state of Texas, bringing with it freezing rain, snow and sleet. Temperatures registered below zero in the night hours and would only rise to single digits during the daytime. Damage estimates from this storm have surpassed those of Hurricane Harvey. Included in the widespread devastation was The Tyler Municipal Rose Garden, Tyler, Texas, an historic site, public garden, and community park that began as part of the Works Progress Administration during the depression. 

The garden has the largest collection of roses in the United States, featuring more than 32,000 bushes and 600 cultivars. It was originally designed to create a living catalog and outdoor laboratory for field rose development and production and is a key component in the civic and science education program of the East Texas school children, who come from all over the region to tour the rose garden and learn about the history of its creation, its horticultural significance, and garden design elements. 

In an effort to restore damages to the garden, The Garden Club of America (GCA) has awarded a $10,000 Restoration Initiative grant to The Gertrude Windsor Garden Club. Funds from the grant will be used to replace the dead roses in the beds surrounding the original north entrance as well as roses for the large arbor at the east end of the garden. The Gertrude Windsor Garden Club has an ongoing relationship in the care and maintenance of this garden, featured previously in Stop and Smell the Roses. In 2017, the club successfully restored the original north entrance to the garden. The original brick wall entrance and arch were hand cleaned and repaired. Landscaping was updated and garden benches were added. The history of the garden’s construction and its original garden designers are featured on an educational plaque at the original entrance site. 

The GCA established the Restoration Initiative in 2017 in response to the urgent needs caused by catastrophic storms, hurricanes, floods, fires, and mudslides to assist member clubs involved in public landscape restoration and conservation projects. Seventeen grants, totalling $170,000 have been awarded to clubs in California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, New Orleans, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.