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Chapters
Roses - Care Guide
Growing Rosa banksiae
Banksian roses
The varieties of climbing specie Banksian roses which we offer on our website are a bit different to many of the other shrub, hybrid tea, climbing and specie roses and perhaps deserve their own care and cultivation tips.
The first thing to appreciate is that apart from Rosa banksiae var. normalis (the single white flowering form which we have only occasionally offered) NONE of the Banksian roses have any prickles!
While we call Banksian roses ‘climbers’ they do need careful training up a wire or trellis support and annual tying in and trimming to keep them in place.
After a trip to exhibit at the Landriana flower show just south of Rome 25 years ago we brought back our first Rosa banksiae ‘Alba Plena’ which has small clusters of double white flowers and planted it on the front of Burncoose House. It is in full sun in poor soil and facing due south. It has now been contained at around 15ft and secured onto wires but still needs pruning each year. The long fleshy shoots of secondary new growth towards the end of the season need to be cut out, or certainly reduced in number, to encourage more flowering on the older growth right through the season. I have even seen a few flowers on this leafless plant in December and a new crop by early May.
Rosa banksiae ‘Lutea’, with its slightly smaller clusters of rosetted shaped double flowered yellow flowers, has been established and growing well on a high (hot and south facing) wall at Caerhays for at least two generations and is periodically thinned of older deadwood when its thick crown gets too thick with fewer flowers. Once every 15 years or so we cut it down completely to about 10ft in height to allow it to regenerate and grow back with far more flowers which it has done several times in the last 50 years.
Banksian roses need to be grown in fairly frost free locations on a wall or fence to avoid dieback from cold but they are the most spectacular of rose species with a long flowering season. Apart from the single white Banksian rose with the prickles the rest do not, unfortunately, have much scent.
(still needs images)