Do you love roses?
I do.
For those of you who have read my blog for a while, my love affair with roses is something that I like to share with others.
Because my husband and I like to visit southeastern Arizona, one of our stops has to include a visit to Tombstone, Arizona. However, we go with very separate interests in mind.
My husband’s reason is his childhood (adult) interest in the Old West. As a result, Tombstone is a favorite destination of his with its historic locations. I admit that I enjoy this aspect as well as I enjoy history and grew up watching old western movies.
Even though I like to view explore the town and its history, my favorite destination lies just a block off of the main street…
Here is the “Rose Tree Inn”. While this unassuming structure has an attractive, historic exterior, it is what lies beyond that call to my rose lover’s heart.
Behind the walls of the of this inn is the gateway to the “World’s Largest Rosebush“.
Believe it or not, this is a famous Rose Bush. Because I had heard of the famous rosebush long ago, I was looking forward to seeing it in person. As you step inside the inn, you pay a $5 admission fee and walk into the small museum and its rose-scented interior.
As you walk toward the back of the inn, you get your first glimpse of the famous shrub. It is a beautiful, restful area and the shade comes from the rose bush itself.
Over the patio, the lacy branches of the rose bush create dappled shade as they extend from the center.
In the center of the branches, you can see the large, twisted trunk of the rosebush. It is really hard to get the scale of how big it is from pictures – but look at how small the door looks off to the right side.
Here is another perspective to help you see the scale of how big it is with me in the picture. For reference, I am fairly tall at 5’9″.
The base of the rose is approximately 12 feet around and very shaggy with strips of bark falling off.
This photo was taken with a flash, which lightens up the area considerably. In actuality, it was dark and shady underneath.
The sheer size is really not easy to comprehend, even first hand.
This rosebush is not only the world’s largest – but it is also very old. The history of the rosebush and how it comes to be planted in Tombstone is a great story.
The rose came to Tombstone in 1887, which makes it 127 years old. A young Scottish immigrant and her husband came to Tombstone in 1885. She was homesick for her home country and family in Scotland. So they sent her a box with cuttings of her favorite rosebush from home.
She gave one of the cuttings to her friend, Amelia Adamson and together they planted the rose bush in the back of Amelia’s boarding house. The rose flourished.
Years later, the rosebush began to attract attention with its large size and became the world’s largest in the 1930s.
Now, the Tombstone rosebush reaches over 8,000 square feet!
I was told that to get an overall view of the rosebush, you walk to the other side where there are steps you can climb to view the top of the rosebush.
Because the only part of the rosebush you see underneath the patio are its branches, standing above it is where you can see its lacy foliage and flowers in the spring.
Can you imagine how beautiful this would look when in bloom? It is said that roses absolutely cover the entire upper part of the rosebush with fragrant, white flowers…
This is a close-up of the flowers from a different Lady Bank’s rose.
As you can imagine, holding up a rosebush this large isn’t easy. For this reason, metal rods form a checkerboard pattern that is held up with large wooden poles.
I saw a bird’s nest within the branches.
After I took about a thousand pictures, I headed back into the little museum where I noticed a row of small rose bushes…
After I took about a thousand pictures, I headed back into the little museum where I noticed a row of small rose bushes…
Then I saw this sign…
Well, I am not normally an ‘impulse buyer’, but in this case, I just had to buy a cutting from this historic plant.
I do have a good spot for it where it can grow up on the wall in my side yard. Furthermore, I will have to provide a trellis for it to grow up on. Likewise, Lady Bank’s roses also make great ground covers.
Although this little rose bush was an impulse buy, it does fit my criteria for ‘fuss-free’ plants. Because it doesn’t require fertilizer or pesticides, I will be happy to water it and prune it when needed.
I look forward to being able to grow a cutting from the world’s largest rose bush!
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