Let’s start with the backstory first –

In 1887, a miner named Schiefflen went searching for silver on apache land near the Mexico border.  He was told by locals all he’d find was his own tombstone.  He ignored all that blather & the result was a huge silver strike worth over $40M (in 1887 dollars.)

This brought all sorts of get-rich-quick types into town beyond the respected businessmen and ranchers who settled down in Schiefflen’s new town of Tombstone.

It is well known that it brought some of the fastest gunmen in the west as well.  That famous gunfight at the OK Corral happened in October 1881, then later in 1882 when the mines flooded, effectively shrinking the economy.

Also that next year of 1882, the Earp family left Arizona shortly as a result of the attempted murder of Marshal Virgil Earp in December 1881, and the actual murder of  Morgan Earp in March 1882.

Ironically, much of the cowboy-related crime subsided not long after.

The Scottish Mary Gee

By 1884 a mining engineer named Henry Gee and his Scottish bride Mary moved to a quieter Tombstone and stayed at the Vizina Mining Company’s boarding house, which was the first adobe building in town and later renamed the Cochise House Hotel.

Also in charge of this boarding house was Mrs Adamson, who like Mary, knew the heartache of being homesick, and the two became good friends.  When Mary’s own home was being built in early 1885, her family sent a box of shrubs from her native Scotland.  That was when she gave Mrs. Adamson a rooted shoot of a Scottish Lady Banksia Rose as a token of their friendship, and that little shoot grew into what we see today.

In the spring of 1885, the two women planted the rose shrub so it would grow up freely, and climb over the woodshed and into the patio.

Careful for what you wish for . .

The Lady Banksia we see today

The Lady Banksia rose (Rosa Banksiae) was introduced from China by William Carr, who first brought it to Kew gardens London England in 1807.  It was named after the wife of Sir Joseph Banks, the then Director of Kew Gardens.

According to Guinness Book of Records, this white Lady Banksia in Tombstone is still the largest rose bush in the world.  Ironically, when Mr. Ripley last saw it and published an article in his “Believe it or Not” book around 1940, it was only 2000 square feet across. 

Its 2019 size is now 12 ft around its trunks, and the blooming canopy covers over 8000 square feet on an elaborate trellis.

For Rosarians and history buffs, it’s worth the drive from Tucson to see this still alive.

Luckily, the feeding of the bush is minimal, however  the pruning takes over a week – and several truckloads of canes and brush are taken off every January. 

The watering out in the Arizona sun is substantial too, as you can imagine.

The blossoms on the bush are small white and growing in clusters. 

  The Cochise House Hotel from its mining days was later renamed the Rose Tree Inn and is now the Rose Tree Inn Museum on 4th and Toughnut Street.

It is open to the public for a modest fee and is worth a stop just for the 19th century memorabilia.

I guess the Lady Banksia is a bonus . . .

TRAVEL TIP: The nice folks there have renovated some rooms and are taking reservations for guests. If the rooms are as well kept as the museum, it would be a nice stay. Call ahead for a stay at 520-457-3326

The museum curator tells visitors like us that all Banksia Roses growing in the U.S. today are descendants of that one rose in Tombstone.  Amazing legacy indeed.

Sources: Wikipedia & TombstoneWeb & The Rose Tree Museum. Museum interior & tree images are mine.