Coming Up Roses

For third-generation green thumb Katy Banks, the blooms are a symbol of love

- SYMIAH DORSEY

KATY BANKS can trace her flourishing Arlington, Virginia, garden of over 400 rosebushes back to a single bucket of blooms that was a present from her grandmother, who was the first in her family's three generations of rose growers. “It was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me,” remembers Banks. “It felt really luxurious and decadent to have all of these fragrant flowers. To this day, I still cut buckets of them to pay it forward just because it was so special to me.”

For her, the blooms have long been a symbol of love and family, and she fondly remembers her grandparents’ lush yard in Washington State. “Their rosebushes were so healthy and tall and beautiful,” she says. “Whenever I'd visit, I'd always go and smell them.”

When she and her husband bought their first home together, she followed in her grandparents’ footsteps, finding the perfect spot for her first-ever climbing rose. She positioned it along a gate framed by a chain-link fence and an arbor. “After that, I was just hooked,” Banks says.