Thanks, Virginia. It's uncommon for something so wonderful to be rediscovered these days.

Yes. It is. But -- It's blooming now???

R. banksia lutea USED to scatter bloom right through the year. But since we began to heat up here, it no longer does.

Yes ma'am, it's blooming NOW. Lutescens gave a scattering of blooms several weeks ago. Dr. Huey, IXL, R. Xanthina and my 1-72-1Hugonis flore plena, all have buds and/or flowers on them. The Minutifolias have scattered flowers since last YEAR and Stellata mirifica has buds and blooms on it...again, now. Go figure.

The Generals is lovely Kim.

It is! Aren't you the guy that's crazy about yellow, David? Lisa

Fantastic - but seriously, as an ignorant northeast coast resident, why are these roses blooming now in California?

Those roses USED to scatter bloom through the summer in my garden. Now, with our climate considerably hotter than it used to be, we've lost that.

Up where Kim is, it's just sufficiently cooler than we are, now, for him to get that later gift of bloom.

Climate. Most roses flower when specific conditional thresholds are met and continue until the thresholds to halt flowering is achieved. In many areas, those conditions have either not been sufficiently met, or have cycled on then off, tricking the plants into believing it's now spring again. Banksiaes flowering for many months at the coast is well documented. My lutescens flowered for many weeks, then stopped, then started again. We "heated up", into the mid eighties for a few days, then fell back into the seventies and now the foggy, gray, chilly evenings and mornings have returned for a while. These roses are responding to "thinking" they've been through summer, a "winter" and are now back into "spring". It's the same situation which is causing traditional azaleas, camellias and hydrangeas (not the Endless Summer types) to continue throwing spasms of flowers. It's neat and a great deal of fun, but it also tricks other plant types into responding oddly or not at all. There are jacarandas in town which flowered many weeks ago...those surrounded by vast areas of hardscape which collected and concentrated the required heat to cause them to flower. There are many which are just now beginning to flower as they have just now received their required heat. But, there are also many others which have not flowered and a number which literally haven't leafed out yet because they aren't receiving heat at all. Many other deciduous trees here are doing similarly. They appear alive and healthy and they definitely received sufficient winter water, but it hasn't been warm enough, long enough to trigger them to respond as if it's summer. We had a bumper crop of plums (Santa Rosa) and peaches (free stone, unknown variety). They required WEEKS to "ripen" but only the very last of each crop tasted as they should because of lack of heat. Primarily those closest to the fence, where they received greater reflected/radiated heat, were really the sweetest, with most of the others tasting like plum or peach, just not really sweet. Sugar requires heat, something we've generally not really had, in comparison to much of the rest of the country. It's that heat that "tells" the roses it's time to stop flowering and go into summer growth mode. It's also that "heat" which stops rose seeds from germinating. They're continuing to push out of the soil, so they, too, seem to think it's still "spring".

Kim, please stop talking about foggy, gray, chilly evenings and mornings. I'm dying of envy! However, I do like this rose better than the usual yellow Lady Banks, it just seems prettier, with more character.

Oh, my! It must be heaven to have Banksia roses that bloom so long or are recurrent, as Cecile Brunner is in California. In fact heaven to have Banksia roses at all -- they are so beautiful -- or were when I lived in North Carolina. I like our springs and falls of course, but the last week has been around 100 with humidity to match. The weeds appreciate it, but it's hard on we humans -- and roses.

Oh, we will have 'out day', Ingrid. Historically, in August and September, it can get into the triple digits here, but it always cools off at night. This has been an unusually cool, damp "summer" so far, for which I am grateful! That cluster of General Vallejo has continued opening.

This afternoon we stopped by two locations in Sonoma where this rose is noted as growing. Neither are in bloom. The rose at the General Vallejo house is quite large. The one at Pagani vineyard has been pruned to about 6'. We need to make this trek in the spring and see it in bloom. Someday I will have this rose.