Every Spring, when the roses are freshly bloomed, The American Rose Center opens its doors for visitors to walk through its 118 acres of rose gardens. On Wednesday, April 3rd, the American Rose Center reopened its doors for its 50th year.
This year, the American Rose Center has much to offer garden enjoyers, including over seven thousand roses. To begin the season, the center will host viewers for the eclipse on April 8. Claire Bissel is the Executive Director of the rose center, and she says the eclipse is just one of many events for this year.
Claire Bissel We’re looking at doing a reunion of people who have gotten married at our location over the last 50 years. We think that will be a fun event as part of our 50 year celebration. We actually have our solar eclipse viewing party, which is, of course, on April 8. We just are inviting people to come out- bring your blankets, bring your picnics, purchase some lunch from one of our food truck vendors. And just enjoy the beauty of the garden while you sit and view the eclipse. We’ve got our International Rose Trial event coming up. We invite the public to come out and they can help us by voting for our People’s Choice Award in the last week of April.
The American Rose Society is an organization dating back to 130 years ago. The society is dedicated to the preservation and education of the rose and uses the center as their headquarters. Since Shreveport citizens helped fund and develop the building of the gardens in 1974, The American Rose Center has been located just outside of Shreveport, making this year the site’s 50th anniversary.
Claire Bissel We’ve added on a lot of things. We have out Great Garden Restoration Project, which was a two million dollar garden renovation that we did between the years of 2017 and 2022. And that was done for donations from the Shreveport-Bossier community, as well as members of the Rose Society from across the country. A lot of people have not gotten out to see what we’ve done. If people came out many years ago and remembered what it looked like, it looks totally different now. We completely renovated it, remodeled. There’s just a lot more to see.
The roses will have two separate blooms, one in April and one in October. Bissel says these peaks are the best times to visit the center and see what they have to offer.
Claire Bissel They’re just excited to go out there, enjoy the fresh air, get outside, walk around, really appreciate the beauty of the garden. It’s just a beautiful outdoor space. As soon as you walk outside there, where you don’t hear the traffic, you don’t hear the city noise. And you feel like you’re stepped into an entirely different place.