forgot to put the picture in, but basically it's a approx 4-5 foot tall banks
you can see it in the middle back of the yard here way back in 09 when we first started putting stuff in.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:65023}}

Banksia is like other typical climbers. Think
year one: sleep,
year two: creep,
year three: leap.

Banksia's are once bloomers, but once they've got their roots grown, they are beautiful when blooming. Yours sounds like it is on a completely normal growth trajectory, and your patience will likely be well-rewarded in a year or two. What she is doing now is putting out her roots. And that takes awhile for a big rose like that, especially in our land of drought and dense soils.

I know nothing about Purezza, so I can't comment on a comparison.

Aimeekitty, you should drive over and look at the ones in Scenic Hills, Rainbow Glen and Sierra Hwy. They are the ones who keep some of them macheted as mounded shrubs, while the ones behind their tennis courts are left to be enormous mountains. It's behind those tennis courts my old garden, A Hidden Sanctuary, grew for 18 years. The slopes which support the bankrupt condos along Sierra Hwy north of Golden Valley sit on the old foot print of that garden.

You can also see unpruned ones at the west end of Rainbow Glen where it connects Soledad Canyon to Via Princessa, planted in the ground cover, under the trees on the west side slopes.

Banksiae loves the SCV! The drainage in your garden can slow them a bit. It appears you're in a newer development and you know how they must compact the soil so terribly hard for seismic stability. Kathy is correct, it can take several years to see explosive new growth due to their insistence of producing 'feet', roots, before throwing the ginormous canes. But, eventually it will do it.

Purezza is not as large a plant as regular Banksiae, by several times the size. Instead of producing huge plants with a few weeks of flowers, it makes many, MANY flowers over the course of the summer on a much more controlled plant. It is for that reason, I suggest it there instead of the traditional one, unless you have the room you want to fill and don't mind the shorter flowering season.

What area of the SCV are you in, out of curiosity? I lived in Canyon Country off White's and Soledad from 1994, a few months after the Northridge quake, until 2009 when I moved back to the San Fernando Valley. My two sisters and their families are still up there. Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: 15 gal Purezza in my old Newhall garden

Kim's assessment is spot-on.

FWIW, our R. banksia lutea came to us maybe 14 years ago as a gift from an older lady who had received it decades earlier as a gift from a then-elderly lady.

It was a big, ugly chunk of a stump of a plant. We planted it alongside our fenceline, figuring it could climb along the 6-ft. fence. HA!
For THREE YEARS, it sat there. Not growing a lot. Not blooming at all. But it wasn't in the way, so we just left it alone and let it do what it wanted.

In year FOUR, it began to grow like mad, and also began to bloom. A year later, it had leaped the board fence and jumped from there into the ficus trees on the other side. And then, it ran right up through the trees and popped out the top, waving its blooms the next spring 30-ft. up from its roots.
It's completely disease-free, and in our coastal climate, it scatters bloom through the year. YOU will get far more spring bloom, and little or no repeat. When not blooming, it's a lovely vine.

Personally, I think there's a strong argument for growing both R. banksia lutea and Purezza. (We also grow R. banksia banksia, and Fortuniana.)

Jeri

My favorite is still Lutescens. The single, yellow flowers melt my heart and it's the only Banksiae I've been able to obtain seed from. One seedling germinated after only four months of being under soil, instead of the two years I'd often read it could take. It's growing like mad, too!

I have that, double white, double yellow, Purezza and Vina Banks here. I still like Lutescens best. Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: Banksiae Lutescens

My white banksia rages out of control. My Purezza is more mannerly and reblooms.

Kim, I agree. If I had a place for it, I'd add lutescens here, but I don't.
I love my Fortuniana, which came from an old cemetery, and I love the lutea here, which was a gift, and is an old plant here in the area. My double-white is nothing special, but it's here, and well-established . . . and Purezza, now it's established, is a treasure.

Jeri

What is Purezza's cold hardiness zone? In other words could I grow it here? HMF was vague. Since it's a hybrid of a Banksia and a tea rose (not hardy here), I doubt it but one can hope... even if not for long.

Cath

Cath, Purezza is a hybrid of Banksiae and Tom Thumb, the first really commercial micr mini. Tom Thumb (Peon) was bred in The Netherlands, so there is hardiness on that side. Can you grow plain old Banksiae? If so, I should think you could also grow Purezza. HMF lists them as the default zone rating until someone provides actual zone information. Kim

I'm in Canyon Country!

I think I was getting spoiled by a few of my other climbing roses like James Galway cl, Eden cl, Alchemist, MAC, Sombrieul and Lavender Lassie, etc... ... all of those have shown growth and a lot of blooms and my memories of (established) Lady Banks Yellow have been this profusion of growth/bloom, but I forgot about the 3rd year leap clause because I figured this was a larger started plant... and my others were growing!

But I think perhaps I'll wait and see what she does next year as you say (which would roughly be her third year.) It sounds like it should grow fine in my area?

I love that Lady Banks is evergreen
and I do really like the small cute leaves even when she is not blooming.

Is Purezza evergreen too?

so I guess the only remaining question (other than worries about me being a bad gardener and somehow stunting it's growth) is whether it's totally unreasonable for me to have a Lady Banks rose in that spot.

Here's what my yard roughly looks like along the sides/walls. I didn't put in all the stuff in the middle, because it's not super relevant, and I can't remember right this moment. :)
{{gwi:305037}}

Here is a link that might be useful: yard drawing

Of course, EVERYTHING is evergreen here, at the coast -- but yes, I'd think Purezza would be.

Growing a big banksia in a pot, tho??? My guess would be that it would become root-bound, fairly early on, but perhaps someone else has done this?

Jeri

Kim,

Banksia would not grow here. We are zone 6a. Even Sombreuil struggles, although there could be reasons other than cold hardiness alone.

Cath

How cool, Aimeekitty! Up Whites Canyon from Soledad on the hill? Yes, Banksiae and Purezza are completely evergreen up there. And, yes, they both have been successfully grown in pots, much the same way you can bonsai a full sized tree in a pot. It requires excellent drainage, a pot of sufficient minimum size for the size plant you want, a pot of suitable material to prevent it from cooking in the sun/heat and religious watering.

I've seen Banksiae grown in five gallon sizes for many, many years. Yes, they become root bound, but preventing the roots from getting to the soil, keeping it properly watered and fertilized occasionally, as well as keeping it sheared to maintain a proper balance between root and top growth sizes keep it alive. It will flower in those conditions, on any sufficiently mature wood and anywhere that wood receives enough sun. The potential for sunburn of the wood is much higher growing in pots because of the water stress from lack of spreading, foraging roots.

I've seen it grown as a tiered "poodle" topiary, and as a standard where the trunk was incredibly thick with side buds removed as you would for a standard trunk. The top branches were permitted to grow and were continually kept sheared to maintain a rounded head. Those also flowered in spring, paving themselves over the surface with bloom. It CAN be done. It takes time and a LOT of effort and attention. I had a client in The Palisades who was a very long time gardener. He was widowed and did all manner of odd things for his own amusement. I teased him his garden was like visiting The Island of Dr. Moreau because of the unusual things he accomplished, but he spent every day in his garden. It was his life.

You could also train a Banksiae like the braided trunk ficus you see everywhere, then either round the head or allow it to fountain out. They are amazingly versatile and enduring plants. They will suffer just about anything you can think to do TO them, as long as their basic requirements are met. Victorian and Edwardian florists raised many types of ramblers and other climbers in pots, training them into fantastic shapes and forcing them to flower for holiday decoration. Think bougainvillea or even what is done to potted florist azaleas in today's markets and you get the idea.

Aimeekitty, you have plenty of room for the Banksiae as long as you aren't afraid to prune and shear it as you would a bougainvillea, pyracantha or other indeterminate shrub or climber. Don't be afraid to prune it. It honestly will thumb its nose at you and grow more vigorously, just in a different direction. If you train it along the top of your fence, you can shear it to form a dense topper which will then flower each spring. Banksiae will make free standing shrubs, totally capable of supporting themselves on the thick wood they will develop. You can see a few of them outside the gates of Scenic Hills along Rainbow Glen, just off Sierra Hwy. Kim

Cath, you might be able to encourage both Banksiae and Purezza there if you have hardscape or a sunny wall to use for them. The Brits have grown Banksiae and Hulthemia as well as many other heat loving, cold tender plants for generations on warmer walls. It's passive solar heating. The radiated heat from the hardscape prevents the plant from experiencing the intensity of the usual cold. Something to try if you're so inclined and have the position for them.

It's precisely the opposite of the difficulties we have with hardscape and walls here. Ours usually cook or fry from the reflected, radiated heat. It's also what permits people along the south coast here to grow sweet citrus, tomatoes and berries well. Putting them in warmer pots on stone or concrete surfaces or against heat radiating walls gives them enough heat to make the fruit sweet. We couldn't bring Plumeria to flower closer to the water, but people slightly up the mountain could by putting them in pots against south facing concrete retaining walls. They got hot enough to flower most of the summer. Kim

Kim,

I have gotten some Z7 plants to survive here with careful siting. I have never succeeded more than one winter with Z8 plants. A few Z8s survive the first winter but always succumb the second. Go figure.

Cath

Makes sense, Cath. Some years are more extreme and some years, plants aren't as well prepared for the severity for a variety of reasons. I pushed that envelope with quite a few things in Newhall with some pretty decent successes, but something always got them in the end. I have a four year old tropical Fuchsia in a pot on a client's patio in Valencia where it should freeze out each year. So far, so good. Kim

oh, did I say a pot? I don't think I meant to! my yellow lady banks is in the ground.

Thanks for all the advice! I think I'll just keep her, I really love the yellow color and the cute flowers and leaves. :)