A combination of sandy soil, year-round rainfall, and a long growing season made the Tyler area ideal for rose propagation. Commercial production began there in the 1870s, when industry pioneers such as G.A. McKee and Mathew Shamburger sold rose bushes along with other nursery stock. The business expanded in the 1920s as more nurserymen began growing roses, and production increased through new growing methods such as irrigation, introduced in 1924 by A.F. Watkins. The Texas Rose Festival began in October 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 carried forward through the organization of the Texas Rose Foundation, Inc., in 1945. The Tyler Rose Garden, a 22-acre municipal park, was created in 1952, with nurseries donating many varieties of plants and the city caring for them. The rose industry remains vital to Smith County's economy; in 1973, local nurseries shipped bushes and flowers worth $9,000,000 around the world, and one-half of the rose bushes produced each year in the United States come from the Tyler area.
