I grow Banshee in a large pot on my front patio. It was identified by Gregg Lowery and Ron Robertson. My rose is a family passalong. Its origin in the family was a farm in Prentiss, Maine, a rural community in Penobscot County with a current population of about 200 people. Many of those relatives were descendants of the Puritan wave of immigration, originally from Yorkshire; others drifted south from Nova Scotia and other parts of northeast Canada. Since Léonie Bell's article mentions a Canadian connection, mine could have originated there. I can only trace mine back confidently to the turn of the previous century. It was a favorite of my great grandmother.

Rosefolly

I have Banshee from two different sources ... one was a sucker on a rose in a cemetery in eastern Virginia given to me by a dear friend, and the other came a couple of years ago as a cutting that a fellow GW-er wanted to ID.

I love this rose! The combination of the passalong nature, with an uncertain origin and a cross-country migration, is irresistable. In the garden, it never fails to attract attention from visitors. The foliage is unique, the shrub is tall and wide and healthy, and I impatiently await its flowers each spring. When it's happy, it suckers with great enthusiasm ... which means that I usually have baby Banshees to share with friends.

Connie

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Blog

Mine is a cutting that I took at the Claremont Cemetery in Denver. It's still a young plant, put in the ground this past summer. So far it is strong growing.

I have been hoping to see more posts on this rose family. I have two as well. One is from Pickering that was supposed to be the Alba Minette-a small rose they said. I knew the first year that it was no Alba. Fortunately there was quite a long posting about Banshee a while back and I had one of those AHA! moments and sure enough when I checked out the receptacle it could not be anything else. The other is one of the Sac Cemetery Banshees brought up by Seattlesue. It did not bloom last year. I am hoping it will be one of the less full ones as the Pickering Banshee is exceptionally full. It is rare for it to open more than a flower or two although this past June was very dry and Banshee showed off...the scent is amazing. The reason to grow an otherwise exasperating rose. Why hasn't someone done DNA work on it?

patricia

I was just trolling a Scandanavian site, linked from the "i hate rose books" thread on the roses forum. As I was scrolling down, I saw a beautiful photo of Minette. Looks like my Banshee to me.

http://www.daglyngar.no/alba/alba.htm (scroll down about halfway)

There's a beautiful bush photo about halfway down this page:
http://www.daglyngar.no/soplimroa/min_hage.htm

Connie

Here is a link that might be useful: garden blog