Chances are when you think about Tombstone, Arizona
the first images that come to mind are a vast desert landscape
and shootouts between men in long dusters at the OK Corral.
While these portrayals of "The Town Too Tough to Die" may be partially accurate
there was another side to this town -
the countless stories of men and women making their way to new areas
in search of opportunity riches and freedom.
Generations of families moved in and out of Tombstone,
from the mining boom to the present day all trying to make the place their home
in whatever way felt familiar.
One such tale involves two families, a package from home,
and what would end up being named the world's largest rose tree.
[Music]
Our tale begins in the late 1800s when a miner by the name of Henry Gee
and his new bride, Mary, set out for America from Scotland.
Henry, an owner of the Old Guard Mine in Tombstone, had visited previously
but it was around 1884 that Mary had arrived in town with her husband
looking to start a new life with him.
It was at the boarding house of the Vizina Mining Company where they settled in for the time being.
After arriving in Tombstone, Mary became homesick in this new town and missed her beloved Scotland.
Once the two settled into the new home they built, Mary's family back in
Scotland sent her a package containing pieces of home.
Inside the package were bulbs and clippings of plants,
some said to be from the Lady Banks rose that Mary herself planted in the Scottish garden as a child.
in her time at the boarding home, Mary is said to have become close friends with
the owner Amelia Adamson.
Wanting to thank her for her friendship and hospitality, Mary bestowed one of the clippings to Amelia
and her boarding house where the two planted the white Lady Banksia in the back by the woodshed.
Little did they know that the clipping that made its way all the way from Scotland
would flourish in the Arizona sun and under amelia's care for years to come.
[Music]
The other family involved in this monumental rose tree is that of the
Robertsons and Macias.
Cris and Alice Robertson moved west from Colorado to Tombstone in 1880
arriving on Christmas Eve.
A miner himself, Cris had his hands in a number of affairs of Tombstone's economy.
Life was good and Cris and Alice soon started their family having five children -
Ethel, Edith, Ralph, Curtis and Olive.
Sadly both Cris and Alice would not live long to see their children grow up.
Alice passed away three years after the birth of Olive
and Cris would pass four years following his wife.
Being the eldest two of the family, Ethel and her sister, Edith, went to work in the Cochise County courthouse
because of their clear handwriting.
When Ethel turned 21 she was appointed guardian of her younger siblings and they were no longer wards of the state.
It is said that these tough times helped to shape Ethel into the woman she would become.
The following year Ethel married James Herbert Macia, a general foreman for the Tombstone Consolidated Mining Company.
The two lived happily together and in 1920 purchased the property that was
formerly the Cochise Boarding House,
the property the Lady Banks Rose was planted on.
By this time the tree had proved that it wasn't going anywhere and had grown rather large.
In fact, it was large enough that James would tear down the woodshed
and instead, erect a trellis system of wooden beams and metal pipes
that could be expanded with the growth of the tree.
This same trellis system can be seen by visitors today.
Ethel continued to be committed to Tombstone and had a hand in preserving
the history of the town in addition to the rose tree.
She appeared on 1955's Wide Wide World, served on the Tombstone Restoration Commission,
and also served on numerous other boards committees in town.
The ownership of the rose tree, however, passed to Ethel's youngest daughter
Jeanne Macia and her husband Burton Devere when they purchased the property in 1941
making the former boarding house their own home.
The property passed from generation to generation and the tree grew ever larger.
So large in fact that Robert Ripley named the bush the world's largest in 1934,
a title it still holds by Guinness World Records.
The trunk is roughly 14 feet in circumference, the height is approximately nine feet tall,
and it's said to cover somewhere between eight thousand and nine thousand square feet.
Burt and Dorothy Devere state that despite the growth of the tree,
it has never been fertilized in its early life.
They go on to joke that they believe the tree's roots sought out its own fertilizer...
in the town's cesspool system that was built before the modern sewage system.
The tree blooms once a year around April when a town rose festival is held
and the fragrance from the roses is said to waft around for blocks.
Visitors can actually purchase clippings of their own to bring home
and grow in their own garden which is what we're actually about to do ourselves.
[Music]
But before we begin our own personal journey with the Lady Banks rose,
we were curious about the history of the species prior to thriving in Tombstone.
It is said that the Rosa Banksiae originated in China for hundreds of years
but didn't make its way into Europe until 1807.
Botanist Sir Joseph Banks set off exploring and came across the plant in the famed Fa Tee nursery
where he brought it back with him.
The rose was named after his wife Dorothea.
The plant has two classes - Rosa Banksiae, a white variety which is what grows in Tombstone,
and Rosa Banksiae Lutea, a yellow variety.
Both are said to be nearly thornless and can grow up to 20 feet tall and 10 feet wide.
They are commonly seen as climbers decorating fences with beautiful spring blooms.
[Music]
Here she is. The Lady Banks rose. Up close and personal.
[Music]
You could see it's thornless... this particular variety.
We've learned or heard that there are thorned or thorny varieties of these but
this is not.
But, yeah, this is the piece of history that we bought in Tombstone.
By the way, if you haven't seen that episode where I actually purchases this,
you can go back in time and we'll put a link in the description down below so you can check that out.
Alright, let's talk about the general game plan for what we're going to do here.
Amy and I have thoroughly reviewed it.
I bought this five-gallon planter. We got it at Lowe's.
Was it, Amy? I don't remember.
I'm gonna drill, like, five holes and looks like there's one hole in it
but will put a couple more holes in the bottom of that and then we're gonna
mix one third of this peat moss mixture with two-thirds of this stuff here.
This is going to be the native soil for now and in the future, we'll switch things up.
That's pretty much the plan. Should be easy peasy, right?
[Amy] Hopefully? Yes.
[Drill whirling] Alright, we're about to perform surgery here.
Alright, let's drill these extra holes. Let's see.
[Drilling sound]
Okay. Holes. [Laughter]
[Drilling sound]
If I sound like I know what I'm doing, I really don't. It's my first time.
But we've been watching a lot of other videos and stuff
with people doing this kind of thing so...
So that's one to two.
Okay, so Amy coached me on maybe a good way to try doing this.
I'm gonna just kind of loosen up the stuff on the sides here and
try to coax her out and she came out nicely. Look at that.
Nice! Look at you. Your new home.
Okay, so now we're just gonna finally just fill the rest up to the top.
This should go pretty quickly I hope.
We are very unsophisticated here on the Cactus Atlas show.
[Amy] But is gardening really sophisticated anyway?
No. [Laughter] I don't think it's supposed to be.
Alright, Amy do you want to come over here and tell me what you think.
[Amy] Looks good.
Maybe, yeah. I mean that's about the height I had envisioned for this.
[Amy] Yeah. Pat it down a little bit?
[Glenn] Yeah.
I know they say that you want to get the air pockets out but you don't want to,
like, pack it too much, right?
[Amy] Yeah. You don't... You want the roots to be able to, like, you know, do their thing.
Okay, so now we just need to give this a really thorough watering.
[Water trickling]
Watering my first rose bush by Glenn of the Cactus Atlas.
Here's another look at the final results.
Amy told me that we're not supposed to water the leaves. I'm a noob.
Next time we won't do that because apparently, it's not good.
It can promote fungal growth and stuff like that but
they're already dry it feels like.
[Amy] We live in the desert.
[Glenn] We do live in the desert.
Alright, folks, so there you have it.
We transported a piece of history from Tombstone, Arizona straight into our backyard.
The Lady Banks rose.
I think we've given it a really good start and I'm so excited to see it thrive.
We'll be sure to come back on future videos and give you updates as to how it's doing
especially once it starts to grow flowers in the future which I can't wait to see that.
Thanks for joining us on this one and we'll see you next time.
[Music]