Ames and Iowa State community residents can enjoy the beauty and fragrance of roses at Reiman Gardens’ annual Rose Fest from 1-4 p.m. Saturday.

Visitors can enjoy the collection of Griffith Buck roses, antique roses and the sustainable design of the Jones Rose Garden. The Iowa Rose Society Annual Rose Show will be in the Garden Room and visitors can see varieties of award-winning cut roses.

“It’s an opportunity for our visitors to learn about roses and show roses,” events coordinator Beth Wessel-Kroeschell said. “People who want to compete in the rose show will come early on Saturday morning and set up all of their roses. And then there will be somebody who is a certified judge coming to award ribbons to them.”

Wessel-Kroeschell said this year’s Rose Fest will showcase the seven-foot Tiki masks made out of real roses. The Heart of Iowa Classical Guitar Society will also play music to celebrate the occasion.

In the indoor hall, interns were completing the Rose Fest sculpture. 

“We are doing two large displays to showcase roses as well as other tropical plants, and doing like a mohawk on a Tiki head,” said Claire Kinley, an intern at Reiman Gardens and senior in landscape architecture. “So we are following the theme of Tiki and conservatory and water, cause that’s our theme for the year.”

Jessie Liebenguth, landscape horticulturist, said, “We are part of the American Garden Rose Selection trial program, so that means there are a bunch of different rose gardens in the nation that have this trial program.

“We all get the same roses, we evaluate them, and we put a lot of emphasis on disease resistance so that you don’t have to do that chemical spray,” Liebenguth said.

One collection was a favorite of the Reiman Garden staff.

“We are especially very proud we have the Griffith Buck rose collection here,” Liebenguth said. “Dr. Buck was a rose breeder at Iowa State University. He was breeding for cold tolerance, and disease resistance, and that was something that happened a long time before. The current climate was looking for sustainability, so he is really ahead of his time.”

Rose Fest is free for Reiman Garden members and Iowa State University students, as well as children age 3 and under. The general public fee is $8 for adults, $7 for senior citizens, and $4 for children age 4-17.