I don't have Lady Banks but I do have deer. There are a number of rose classes the deer leave alone, so it wouldn't surprise me if the banksia are among them. Basically, the older the class, the less the deer eat of them. My gallicas, musk, centifolias, rugosas, chinas are never bothered. The Hybrid Teas and Floribundas are deer candy and anything with wichichurana in it's genes gets nibbled at the least. Some of my hybrid musks get their tips nibbled, but the rest is left alone.

Hello Catsrose,

Thanks so much for your reply! You wouldn't happen to know about Fortuniana's desirability for deer, would you?

Best wishes,
Mary

I do grow Fortuniana (on purpose, as a rose bush not a root stock) and Yellow Lady Banks (banksie lutea), although not Lady Banks White. I believe that the growth pattern of the yellow and the white banksies are similar.

My Fortuniana is tiny, mostly because the deer have been chomping it continually. I finally put it in a tomato cage, and it is getting bigger. As I recall, I also caged the banksie lutea when it was small. It is not bothered by deer at all now, as it is huge, and the canes below deer height are 2-3 inches in diameter.

So, I guess what I am saying is that here the deer DO eat banksies, but the roses cleverly solve this problem eventually by putting their tender foliage out of reach of the deer.

Jackie

the roses cleverly solve this problem eventually by putting their tender foliage out of reach of the deer.

*** Ain't nature grand? :-)

Jeri

>I do grow Fortuniana (on purpose, as a rose bush not a root stock) and Yellow Lady Banks (banksie lutea), although not Lady Banks White. I believe that the growth pattern of the yellow and the white banksies are similar.
My Fortuniana is tiny, mostly because the deer have been chomping it continually. I finally put it in a tomato cage, and it is getting bigger. As I recall, I also caged the banksie lutea when it was small. It is not bothered by deer at all now, as it is huge, and the canes below deer height are 2-3 inches in diameter.

Jackie, thanks so much for this information. I for sure will not put the Fortuniana rose (still in its pot from the ARE nursery) outside the fenced-in area where the deer can get to them then.

What I'm trying to do is to avoid even a single nibble from the deer. I strongly suspect our deer were the vectors for Rose Rosette Disease starting up in this yard last fall. The deer range over many miles around here... and I know from experience that their favorite roses are those with RRD growth tips.

Regarding Lady Banks White and deer nibbles, I'm still a little uncertain. Theoretically, they might eat the yellow kind and not the white, since the white has more fragrance in its bloom--and fragrance is something that deer will avoid when other food choices are available. But that fragrance relates to blooms, not the entire plant, and most of the time, it's not blooming, so I don't know why the deer might avoid it, if they do indeed dislike it. I did notice that Antique Rose Emporium made no claims about deer avoiding the yellow Lady Banks, which gives me some hope. They only said that about Lady Banks White.

On the other hand, the fragrance of the blooms of fortuniana is supposed to be similar to that of Lady Banks' White. So if they, indeed, do not eat Lady Banks' White, their avoidance might have nothing to do with bloom fragrance, or perhaps fragrance at all. It's so hard to predict!

I've read a book on deer, a really good book. It mentioned that deer, like humans, vary in what they like to eat and not eat, even those within the same deer variety and even deer living within the same general area. That's my little worry in doing too much extrapulating to the specific deer population that we have here from a very limited number of experiences elsewhere.

The RRD problem here led me to have to toss more roses than I care to think about now. And I'm not sure enough about those roses still awaiting planting at this point to risk getting RRD started up again in a part of the yard that the deer roam through looking for food. But the alternative is to situate them inside the fenced-in area of the yard that is already largely landscaped. There's really only room for a few more roses there. I hate to give up that room to once-blooming roses that were originally ordered for places outside the fenced-in area. I probably can find a place for Fortuniana and Madame Plantier within the fenced area, but I can't imagine letting Lady Banks White loose in that part of the yard!

I doubt that I'd have ordered any once-bloomers this spring if not thinking about all the room we theoretically have available in non-fenced areas. The once-bloomers will be blooming during periods when all our rhododendrons, azaleas, and peonies will be blooming, so we really don't need any once-bloomers inside the fenced area, where the landscaping is largely done. We mainly need bloomers for later in the spring, summer, and early fall when other flowering plants aren't blooming.

On the other hand, I think I'd love Lady Banks White, and can imagine using all those tiny fragrant blooms to good advantage in bowls of flowers that are mostly much larger. That's one of the reasons I ordered it to begin with. I'm not anxious to toss the rose, but...

Decisions, decisions...

Thanks so much for your input!

Best wishes,
Mary