Keeping Her Promise

The lady of the roses, rosa banksiae, is formidable as well as lovely.  This photo records the yellow roses on my Lady Banks growing like gangbusters on an arbor in my back yard.  The largest rose tree in the world, The Tomstone Rose, is a white Lady Banks located in Tombstone, Arizona.  It has a trunk circumference of over 13 feet and covers an area of 8000 square feet and comes with an enchanting story. 

In 1885 newlyweds, Mary and Henry Gee, came from Scotland to Tombstone where Henry worked as a mining engineer.  mary's family sent her a box of plants from home which included several cuttings from what they called"Old White Rose".  Mary gave her friend and former landlady, Amelia Anderson one of the cuttings, and the two planted the rose behind the boarding house.  That boarding house is now a hotel known as Rose Tea Inn where, in the 1930's that cutting planted by friends came to be called "The World's Largest Rose" by Robert Ripley.  The rose continues to hold that honor in the Guiness Book Of World Records.  There is a Tombstone Rose Festival every April to celebrate the blooming of this incredible rose.

While yellow Lady Banks has no scent, the white smells like violets.  So one has to ask if you want smell or color.  I opt for the color perferring the yellow, but that choice is due to the sentimental association I have with my Mama's yellow Lady Banks.