Believed extinct or lost

• The Monster

8 favorite votes.  

Bred by A.C. Tunningley (United States, 1995).

Hybrid Banksia.  

USDA zone 6b through 9b (default).  

I bred "The Monster" in 1995. It was one of the first crosses I made containing tender roses because I had built my greenhouse the Summer before and I had only begun to grow roses under glass. Using the only two roses that I had in flower at the time, I put pollen of Old Blush onto one truss of Lady Banks flowers. I got three seeds and all of them germinated. Two of the seedlings were very weak and I discarded them after a few years of struggling with them. The third was incredibly vigorous and I planted it in the open ground in the greenhouse. I didn't get my first flowers until a few years later and it never had more than a few flowers each year but the individual blossoms were very attractive. They were about an inch in diameter, mid-pink, double and had a nice scent. Since I never had much interest in it and I didn't know that it was hard to get Lady Banks to set seed, I finally removed it because of its huge size and lack of flowers. At its largest it easily stretched end to end of my greenhouse, although it was planted mid-way so the individual canes were no more than fifteen feet long. The plant was thorny and had no disease problems.

Now extinct. This is the pollen parent of 'Lila Banks' and "Old Lady Gates".

(Added by Robert Neil Rippetoe 1-10-07)