In 1962 Lloyd Jystad, a city employee, asked permission to plant ten tree roses on the boulevard of Main Street to spruce it up. The idea grew year by year to about a hundred rose bushes along 2nd Street, tended by city crews, and the Boulevard of Roses was formally dedicated in June 1968. The rose is on the city seal, on the police patch, and in the name of the August festival, Rose Fest, whose parade runs down the boulevard on Sunday afternoon. The Kenyon Municipal Utilities crews still prune and feed the beds each spring, and the July council packets carry the claims for the plants.