Tombstone Arizona Rose

Tombstone, Arizona has the world's largest Lady Banksia, at 8,000 square feet.  Intertwined plants grew during the last 130 years to form a gigantic plant with a huge brown trunk.

Lady Banksia is a vigorous climber that does well in warm climates.  You can plant it in a micro-climate in colder areas.

Repeat bloomers

A remondant rose I love is Souvenir de la Malmaison, grown in Josephine Bonaparte's chateau garden in Malmaison, near Paris and beloved by Catherine the Great, who filled the Imperial Gardens at St. Petersburg with the pale pink voluptuous flowers with strong fragrance. It's too tender (Zone 6-9) for my climate, but I've planted one near the east side of my house where the north wing of my family room protects it from frigid winter winds.  It receives plenty of sunshine there, too.

Souvenir de la Malmaison is temperate climate rose that can be grown in the north with protection.

Green Rose (Rosa viridiflora) is also planted there, as it, too, is tender.  The Green Rose is a love-it-or-hate flower.  Blooms have no petals, only pronounced red-striped, green sepals that smell of black pepper when stroked.  It's a China rose from the 16^th century.

The Green Rose has a spicy fragrance that smells like fresh black pepper.

Little or no fertilizer needed.

Take it easy on the fertilizer.  Old roses like other heirloom plants don't need large amounts of nutrients.  They are used to taking what they need from uncultivated soils that are full of decomposed plant matter.  Many gardeners find that organic fertilizers or slow-release foods are best for old roses.  Feeding plants large amounts of nitrogen and phosphorous, found in commercial rose fertilizers, results in excessive amounts of foliage and few or no flowers. 

Old roses that bloom only once a year will flower without any fertilizer.  Only a small amount of nutrients are required to maintain healthy leaf color and cane growth.  To gauge how much is needed, feed roses a little and watch what they do.