PlantFiles: Lady Banks Yellow Rose, Yellow Banksia
Rosa banksiae 'Lutea'

Pretty pale yellow 1" blooms in spring. This plant should really be considered a climber, it has rose type leaves but no thorns or fragrence. The blooms do not have typical rose petals and blooms only for a couple of weeks in spring.

I've had a Lady Banks rose for about four years now. It will grow like crazy but has never made one flower EVER. This plant will grow taller then my house but that's all.

I have two Lady Banks Roses: one white, one yellow - planted together and they bloom beautifully (and fragrantly!) in the spring. It took them a few years, though - I had almost given up on them.

It is definitely NOT a rose for a formal garden. My only problem with this type of rose is knowing how and when to prune to control the rampant growth. I once pruned at just the wrong time and never saw a bloom that year, so be careful not to make that mistake.

Here in south Louisiana, it grows very rampantly and needs a very large area to grow in to show to its best advantage.

Blooms here in early March and mine are always loaded down with lovely yellow blooms that have a faint, delicate scent. Prune immeadiately after flowers fall, later pruning will sacrifice next spring's flowers. But I have to continually prune some of the long green shooting spears cause they grow out over my driveway and interfere with the traffic. It looks wonderful grown up into a tree and many times down here it is planted in the middle of several tall posts or pipes, then trained up tall and then allowed to spill out and downward; that is when it looks the best. Very easy to root cuttings.

I'm familiar with this rose from my childhood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and am considering planting it here in my northcentral Florida garden, (USDA Zone 8b). From my research, the folks at the Antique Rose Emporium in Texas indicated there are two colors, yellow ('Lutea') and white ('Alba Plena')

Rosa banksiae is a climber, eventually growing to about 20 feet tall, and is very long lived. It was named in honor of the wife of the "gifted amateur rosarian, Sir Joseph Banks", it has been known since 1807, has a lovely fragrance, kind of like violets. It's thornless, has no serious disease or insect problems.
Blooms massively in Spring with small, one inch flowers for up to six weeks. Not very hardy, use in zones 8 to 9 only, as may die below 15°F degrees. Deer don't like the plant and it is best used in a naturalistic garden setting.

From some other sources I've learned that there are also various types. The Sunset Book Roses says "the scentless double yellow form is more widely planted that the fragrant double white type." Also says it has green stems with narrow green leaves, and blooms in early Spring in mild winter areas.

Our area went down to 14°F degrees last winter (coldest winter on record), and this rose blooms very early, so is subject to late frosts, so I'm not sure yet if I will actually plant this very attractive rose.

I planted this in my New Mexico xeriscape garden and trained it to grow up and over a pergola for a soft, cascading cover. This perennial is hardy in Zone 7. I did annual pruning and minimal care and fertilizing in Spring. Set on a twice-weekly drip (deep) watering cycle, it is very drought-tolerant, profuse with blooms for about 4 weeks and has a lovely scent. It can get away from you if not trained and somewhat constrained. It's important to plant in the right setting where there is plenty of room to spread out, such as an archway or along a wall or fence, and where it has plenty of sun. Mine was located on the southeast side where it got sufficient light, although my neighbor also had one planted on his east fence which was partly shaded, and it, too, was a profuse bloomer. Perhaps it just liked the soil mix... Either way, it was striking and one plant's bloom cycle that I really looked forward to each year. Birds, bees and butterflies loved it, too!

I have always had a Lady Banks rose where ever I lived, wonderful bloom that covers one of our buildings.

"In Search of Lost Roses" by Thomas Christopher has the following tale:
Mary Gee was a new bride in 1884 when her husband Henry moved from Scotland to Tombstone to supervise his company's mining interest. The young woman followed but she missed the cool, lush greenery of home. So she wrote to her parents for cuttings of the old white rose that grew in their garden. When the bits of rooted cane arrived in 1885, Mary planted one behind "Cochise House," the adobe boarding house where she and her husband had first stayed when they came to Tombstone. The American Rose Annual reported that this rose's trunk had reached a girth of ninety-five inches. Ripley's Believe It or Not and the Guiness Book of World Records took note of this floral monster, which now spreads its branches over eight thousand square feet to bear millions of blossoms annually.

I saw all these entries in the south and california for Lady Banks rose and wanted to add my comments. I live in Seattle Washington and my Lady Banks rose is HUGE, even though it is only 4 years old now.

Its roots are in a protected corner of the yard and though it does lose its leaves in the winter (the lime green canes look great in a stark kind of way), come March they all come back again. It is now April and I have rafts of double yellow flowers. I was told it was scentless, but there is a faint sweet smell around its trellis, especially on warm evenings.

It survived a 18 degree cold snap this winter and was also covered in snow - it has responded by climbing over the carport.

I inherited my Lady Banks when we bought the house. It is about 50 years old, and grows intertwined with wisteria on a pergola on the east side of the house. Whatever the original planters did, they did it right, because the pair of plants bloom simultanously and people come down the alley just to stare into our back yard.

We are currently in a drought, as we were in 1950 when the pergola was built. Rose and wisteria seem to be thriving, despite a 5 year gap when no one took care of anything and the remainder of the yard died (we're gradually getting it back through drip irrigation and careful replacement).

Both plants are huge - the rose's main stem is about 4" in diameter - and I suspect a little pruning would benefit both the plants and the pergola. If anyone has advice about pruning the rose, I'd love to have it.

I first saw a yellow Lady Banks Rose(many, as a matter of fact) when they were in full bloom in Jackson, MS---Of course, I "had to have one" although I've never grown roses in my 66 years! Friends who did were always having to spray, fertilize and prune----too much trouble for a busy lady. After selecting a very small one at a reputable nursery, I couldn't wait to get home (Memphis) and plant it......even though I was told----"it will never grow that far north (200 miles)". When I planted it with no special prep work to the soil (west side), I NEVER expected that it would be so beautiful. Located on a brick wall to the house facing west, it is now about 7 feet tall with branches extended out into my back yard. Each year when it presents the tiny roses I mark my calander so I'll know when to expect them again! April 8 seems to be my lucky day! However, I do need to know about pruning which I've never done. Don't even know how. After they bloom is when I think, but HOW and HOW much? I already love this new web site. Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!

I have the best of this plant. The house across the street has a splendid one over their carport. I can enjoy it in season and ignore it the rest of the time. However it is so beautiful when in flower, that if my neighbour ever removed his I'd have to find the space for it.

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This is one of those rare plants that will do and can do anything you ask of it. It is very forgiving of mistakes, and if left alone with plenty of room, will be the highlight of your yard. We live in the country and my Lady Banks has the run of several trees and the space in between, and though I live 1/2 mile off the main highway, many people hunt us down to find out what kind of glorious "trees" we have that have such wondrous blooms. Get one and let it go (grow). You will never be sorry! Lady Banks is the Grand Dame of the Garden!

I read about this rose and really wanted one. So I did what what was advised against. Planted a yellow lady banks rose shrub today in a smallish area in my medium sized yard. It's just a little 2 foot bare root one right now. We might be buying five acres soon however and would transplant it or take cuttings from it.
But, in case that doesn't happen and I'm still here a few years at this place. Is there anyway to keep it smaller, like a wisteria vine? Can it be made to look more like a flowering tree? Kept under 8' tall? I realize from what I read that it an get masive and heavy. I'd need to have my husband make some kind of trellis for it from metal pipes. Can I cut branches below it to make it look more like a flowering tree? Or isn't that possible?
Thanks Cheryl

I interplanted my yellow Lady Banks rose with Cherokee Rose, which has a similar rambling growth habit that can also reach great heighths (to the tops of trees in my area in NE Fla). The two roses bloom about the same time. It is a very effective display with the combination of the small, "fluffy" yellow Lady Banks with the large, flat blooms of the Cherokee Rose.

I too fell in love this plant when visiting my sister in Austin, TX 6 years ago in the spring. She has the white one's growing down the side of her house on a wood fence and they are beautiful. I came home to MS right outside of Memphis and started looking for one and last year found a yellow one and planted it and had beautiful blooms my first spring. Mine is planted on a trellis behind my brick mailbox and it is already over the mailbox and framing it. We had people stopping and asking "what is that plant"----We have had weather below 15 and covered with ice and snow this past winter and mine stayed green and is loaded with blooms (Mar. 27) and ready to put on a show. All we have done is give it a little food and made sure it was well mulched. My husband did prune it after it bloomed last year as it was taking over the driveway but as someone mentioned earlier it was soon after it was finished blooming. This is a great plant just wish it bloomed more than once but the wait is worth it.

Has anyone ever successfully grown the yellow Lady Banks rose in Western New York? I have wanted this rose for many years. I'm in Zone 5. Thanks.

I started with a small potted plant about 3 feet tall. I have to cut back tons each year to keep it from taking over the house. It grows into the eaves and through microscopic gaps around windows.
I am still giving it a positive, because it's not its fault I planted it next to the house. If it were planted on a gazebo or along a fence it would be awesome. It covers itself with fist sized clusters of little blooms in spring, that do have a mild aroma in my garden. The show lasts about 3 weeks, then you just get leaves the rest of the year. It stayed green all year the first 3 years, then lost all it's leaves this year (the mildest winter-go figure). The trimmed branches make great stakes for other plants.

What a lovely rose.. it was on my wish list and my heart jumped when by chance I saw it early spring at a big box store last year. I have planted three of them around my children's play set with hopes that it will eventually engulf the entire top and give the entire wooden play set a very cottage feel. It is thornless, so perfect for the play area.. Just love it. I will post pictures once it gets going as I want it to.

From counrtysideroses.com:
Class: Species, Climber
Bloom: Light yellow
Size: 20 ft. tall
Introduced: Parks, 1824
A light yellow version of the Lady Banks rose. Small buttery yellow blooms cover this rampant climber in early spring. With thornless foliage that is evergreen in mild climates, this rose is great for covering a fence, pergola, or climbing a tree. Unlike the Lady Banks rose, Yellow Lady Banks has no fragrance, but it is a show-stopper nonetheless. Zones 8-9.

We bought our place in 1998 and the Lady Banks roses were already here. The lovely vining branches grow up and into a nearby Pin Oak tree, well over 20 feet tall. The first blooms for this year appeared earlier this week and in a few days it will be simply gorgeous! I'll upload some pictures of the flowers when they're really going wild.

I highly recommend this if you want a climber that requires little to no care. I haven't even pruned ours but will this year. It's a consistent, easy care, and pretty rose.

Hi,
I live in the Jacksonville Fla area and have had great sucess with all four of my lady banks plants.
First a little back- ground. My wife and I were in Charleston S.C. and were down in the very old section of town by the river when we saw a lady banks tree that was in full bloom with three colors, thats right 3 colors,( white, yellow and pink). My wife fell in love with it's smell and flower size so we had to get ONE but ended up getting four, great another ONE plant for me to deal with in our back yard garden.
Planted one on the inside of a south facing fence, the next on the east side of our house under the eaves, mistake on that one, the third one was planted on the inside of a southwest facing fence, the last one was planted on the other side of out house on the outside of a southwest facing fence.
Okay, now plants one, two, and four are growning great and nothing was added to the poor soil we have in my neighborhood, also all three of these needs major trimming, my question is how much can you trim this plant back in one year and still not kill it?
The 3rd one was not doing real great so I got ambicious and replanted it after it finished blooming this year to the same fence as plant one. I got scared because it lost of it's leaves and looked deader than a doornail. kept it on a water cycle of every couple of days and about a month later it finally stared to put out new leaves and is looking better every day. Really don't care if it does not bloom next spring as I know that it will do it's thing in time.
Lastly if you want to pot this plant in a cedar / wooden box, DON'T, the roots from plant three, under the eaves, have grown thru the bottom of the box and now that plant is unmoveable.
Again any help on prunning would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks for your help