May I add that this will be in the special silent auction at the Open Garden?

You sure know how to hurt a girl, Anita.
Where in GawdsName would I PUT it?

Jeri

Really, really pretty.

Do you find that either Banks rose has any scent? People disagree, but if there is any scent at all, even if a faint one, surely such large roses as these would produce enough to be detected.

The single white one does have a scent - light, sweet, perhaps indeed it's redolent of violets as people say.

When normalis starts to bloom, my allergies kick into high gear - I'm really allergic to tree pollen, and they seem to have the same timing. So, I'm not the best source to describe the fragrance.
Anita

Thank you really much, Anita!
Those pictures are gorgeous. Just a little bit annoyed to have already "finished" the trees in my garden!!! :o)))

I have too a beautiful picture of 'Lutea' take in the gardens at Ninfa... can I show it here?

Maurizio

The single yellow also has a nice scent.

The double white reeks of violets. The scent is really powerful.

Jeri

Am I the only one here who thinks the thornless R. fortuniana is the "white" banksia or am I just full of it? A fellow rosefriend who does the retail rose thing gave me some pots of fortuniana for my personal trial at grafting and some were thornladen while others were smooth as a baby's face and I believe the bloom on that smooth-caned rose is identical to the pretty white Lady Banks.

Fortuniana is being offered in retail under a number of silly names like Summer Snowflake. The usual fortuniana plant out here (VID) has canes that are largely thornless and other canes with a few scattered thorns. It forms a lovely arching shrub maybe 10 feet wide but never seems to perform the aerial acrobatics of the Banksias.

Hmmm, wonder what I have...it's grown into my neighbor's tree and blooming, thornless, about 15 feet (4 years). I set the pot by the fence and it grew under the fence into her garden. I offered to take it up but she likes it. :)

Yes, Fortuniana IS sold as "Snowflake," and it IS sold as "White Lady Banks."

Our Fortuniana came from an old cemetery. The place has 3 of them. All, I am sure, were rootstock plants.

There's no tree near our Fortuniana, but the main mass of it is about 15 ft. across now, and still growing.
It's recently thrown out some longer canes which tried to eat a young desert willow.
DH moved those over to the fence, and they reach an additional 12 or more feet on up the hill.
I believe it's going to attack Smith's Parish, and may the best Monster win.
Based on what I see of it, I suspect it might try to climb a tree, if it had one.

One thing I notice about it is very fine structures, like soft prickles, up and down the peduncle.
R. banksiae banksiae does not have those. Both are pretty much thornless for us, otherwise.
And banksiae banksiae demonstrably climbs trees here.

Jeri

And in a hot climate like Miss Pat's, maybe Fortuniana would be a tree climber. But not here, much farther north. It is completely evergreen even here, btw. The foliage isn't identical to the Banksias, tho. Lemme see if I have some shots. What I remember most is that it had many 3 leaf leaflets with the lovely long, elongated shape of the Banksias. Also, I think it has many, many more petals that just double.

Patricia,
Is your ladybanks still in a pot or did you transplant it? I am growing a Purezza (it's supposed to be a small variety) in a large pot and worry I am crazy for doing it.

Fortuniana flowers should be about twice the size of a double white banksiae flower, and should be borne in clusters of 1-3, rarely 4 flowers, whereas the banksiae will tend to make more flowers per cluster. I've never seen a totally thornless Fortuniana. One cane, yes, but not the whole bush. It makes many big, virtually thornless canes right after blooming, but for the rest of the year, most canes will have some thorns, and a few will be wickedly armed.

Malcolm, it seems to be pretty thorn-free here, but then it is almost never out of bloom here. That might make a difference.

Malcolm is quite right about the size of the blooms.
And not only are they larger, but they are differently formed.
Where banksiae blooms are little white pom-poms, Fortuniana's have a ragged button eye even:

{{gwi:242811}}

Jeri

How nice that they have those there.

Mine still in a pot? Lol, the pot grew to the ground via the rose bush and canes came up all around it, in my yard and the neighbor's. I don't know what it is if it is not fortuniana but the other pots (he gave me 4) were indeed thorny but not this one. Not sure why. He does breed roses and maybe he uses more than one roostock or this is one that has mutated.

since this friend hybridizes roses and he also grafts, it may be that he has something that he has "grown" that is akin to either r. fortuniana or banskia but is not either, but something he has "borne" that inadvertently put into the "grafting" herd.

We have most of the known banksiae in the cemetery, and one that may be a unique hybrid. "Vina Banks" was found in Northern California on a ranch that was owned by the Stanford family, and we have no records to tell us whether it was an import from China, a spontaneous hybrid or something deliberately bred. We'll have quite a few of those for sale at our Open Garden on Apr 12.

So, our list of banksiae includes single and double white, single and double yellow, Purezza, Fortuniana and Vina Banks. Purezza and Fortuniana haven't yet started - the single and double are in full glory - and Vina Banks is just starting, and repeats somewhat in our climate. Months of banksiae blooms. It is indeed nice that we have them. (Barbara brought lutescens back from Florida, Malcolm, so we have it thanks to you!)

I'll post Vina Banks photos on a separate thread.
Anita