Our Tyler logo carries the same emblem every Merlin Classics Texas place wears — a Texas longhorn and the Lone Star, above "Texas Republic, Est. 1845," rendered in hand-printed black and white with a worn, vintage feel. The longhorn and star are the Texas mark, the through-line that ties Tyler to every other Texas place we make. What makes this one Tyler is everything around it: the Rose Capital, the garden in bloom, the azalea-lined streets of the Piney Woods. On a tee or a cap it reads less like a souvenir and more like a piece of East Texas — Est. 1845, worn plain.
The Rose Capital of America — where a failed peach crop became the largest rose garden in the country. Tyler is the seat of Smith County, set in the rolling pine country of the East Texas Piney Woods and named in 1846 for President John Tyler. When the town's peach orchards failed in the early twentieth century, growers gambled on roses instead — and the sandy soil and mild climate turned Tyler into one of the world's great rose-growing centers, home of the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden, the nation's oldest and largest, and the Texas Rose Festival held every October since 1933. This page tells the story of the Rose Capital of America.
Why People Visit Tyler Texas
- Walk the Tyler Municipal Rose Garden — fourteen acres and tens of thousands of bushes, the nation's oldest and largest, with the Rose Museum.
- Time a fall trip to the Texas Rose Festival, held every October since 1933, for the Rose Show and parade.
- Drive or stroll the Azalea & Spring Flower Trail through the historic brick-street neighborhoods at peak spring bloom.
- See the giraffes and big cats at the 85-acre Caldwell Zoo.
- Hike the pines and paddle the CCC-built lake at Tyler State Park.
- Tour the Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum, a Victorian mansion and city park downtown.
- Come hungry around the holidays — East Texas smokehouse tradition runs deep, and a hickory-smoked turkey is a Tyler-area Thanksgiving staple.
