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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Garden -> Dushanbe Teahouse Roses
 A BOUQUET OF HARDY ROSES: THE DUSHANBE TEAHOUSE GARDEN
By Niki Hayden
At the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, a vigorous climbing rose is in full bloom--
a horticultural knockout with gold buds that open to yellow, creamy blooms.
Arching upwards, the bush looks like a subway train passenger reaching for an
overhead hand strap in a packed car. This Lawrence Johnston climber has proved
spectacular--canes pointed in all directions, dotted with buds. "I’ve got
to tie that rose up," Mikl Brawner says with awe. Rose climbers cannot
cling, but require something to anchor their robust stems stretching to the sky.
A small crowd gathers to exclaim about the rose that intends to take over the
garden.
 Mikl is one of the designers of the garden. His wife, Eve Reshetnik, is the
other. Together they have assembled the Boulder Valley Rose Society to fertilize
the roses in a garden nearly six years old. "We realized it would be quite
a showpiece and needed to be beautiful and sensual for as long a time as
possible," Eve says. From the beginning, the rose garden was asked to be
vigorous and hardy, as well as sensitive to the origins of the Teahouse, which
was a gift from the former Soviet Union’s Tajikistan people.
Situated at 1770, 13th Street, in Boulder, the Teahouse is an
example of folk architecture from Central Asia, a lavish gift during a time of
thaw in relations under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev. Tajikistan is
situated on the Silk Road that winds from Iran to China. Silk, tea, opium and
religion traveled freely. Nearly every small village could afford a teahouse,
where weary travelers would rest, find refuge and chat with the locals. The
value of hospitality has been linked to the teahouse in the Tajik culture for as
long as anyone can remember. It served as a suitable gift when times were
happier and a long friendship between two former enemies could be encouraged.
 The Dushanbe Teahouse is painted in stylized pink roses with green leaves.
The pastels are from a spring palette of Tajik colors and the inside of the
Teahouse, which now serves as a restaurant, is akin to sitting in a remarkable
jewel box. Because the motif of the Teahouse was a rose garden, the outside,
too, was destined to be roses. The garden also had to be sturdy and capable of
thriving, even if left to neglect at times. Apart from those requirements, Eve
and Mikl wanted a full array of colors and roses that would be reliable repeat
bloomers. They ended up with a list of over 50.
"We thought it important that it be a demonstration garden of hardy
roses," Eve says. "They are all on their own root and none of them are
hybrid tea or floribunda roses, so none of them needs to be cut way back."
Tender roses often are grafted on tougher roots to carry them through a winter.
Most require special care to ensure their survival. Those that come with their
original roots are more like shrubs, with stems that grow woodier each year,
allowing them to fill in space. These roses, Eve says, require less maintenance:
"We let them grow to maturity pruning out
only  deadwood, or problems, like stems that get into the way. Once they get to
the size that you intend, then you can start to prune for shape and size and
health. You do prune periodically for air circulation and renewal. It’s not
the same pruning regimen for a grafted hybrid tea and floribunda roses."
Twice a year members of the rose society add fertilizer, a mixture of organic
ingredients, as well as alfalfa meal and kelp. Mikl mixes the three together in
a vat and portions out buckets and cups to the volunteers. "Two cups for
each rose bush," he instructs as the hunched gardeners water and scratch
the soil, sifting what looks to be green sawdust around each plant. The roses
are studded with buds, hundreds on each bush, and covered with aphids. Eve waves
away any concerns. "They’ll not do any real damage," she says.
Remarkably, these roses have never been watered as they should be. Sometimes
drought has dried up much of the watering regimen altogether, or they receive a
slight sprinkling each day, which no rose expert recommends. Nearly all roses
like deep watering when needed, often a week or two in-between. Yet, they are
astonishingly healthy.
 Neither are they all in the same kind of rose category: some are thousands of
years old, others hybridized twenty years ago. A few are from Canada and one is
a miniature. "We wanted different classes of roses to be represented as
much as possible," Eve says, "but there are only so many roses that we
had room for."
Mikl, who owns a Boulder nursery called Harlequin’s Gardens, provided compost when
the roses were planted. Mixed with the existing, mostly clay soil, "the
roses took off," Eve says, eager to set down roots in the loose, loamy
soil. Mikl continues to add a layer of compost twice each year to combat the
compression that clay soil can cause. Over time, some roses have grown so
rapidly that others have been crowded out. Robusta, a modern shrub rose, lives
up to its name. The vivid red single petals cover the bush like a mantle,
beckoning those arriving from the street. A smaller garden mate, the Old Garden
Rose ‘Ferdinand Pichard,’ is lurking somewhere behind, probably declining.
 "Some roses have been more successful than others. I might have planted
things farther apart," Eve says. Even at four feet apart, a few, like the
Canadian rose, William Baffin, have grown beyond claims. Still, a thicket of
roses provides the privacy and intimacy that outdoor diners crave. Eve was
determined to plant roses that would waft fragrance in close proximity to those
who linger and catch the scent.
Old Garden Roses, those that date before 1867, when scientific hybrids made
an entrance, often carry fragrance in their genes. Where hybrids may or may not
offer scent, many older varieties were cultivated purely for their fat red hips,
to make a vitamin C-enriched tea, or their perfume. "I garden for
fragrance," Eve says about her own garden. Designing a rose garden linked
to the Teahouse, where diners would relax, mandates a roster of perfumed
varieties—Rose de Rescht, Sydonie, Mme. Hardy, Banshee, Alba Sauveolens,
William Lobb, Constance Spry, Kazanlik, Stanwell Perpetual and Gertrude Jekyll.
About half the scented roses are Old Garden roses, the rest are from David
Austin’s modern shrub roses. Austin is well known for hybridizing modern roses
that carry Old Garden roses in their lineage.
 Louise
Odier, an Old Garden rose, releases perfume into the air. So does
Abraham Darby, a modern shrub rose. With its floppy open bloom and golden
stamens, each Theresa Bugnet blossom bounces in the breeze, hoping to be
noticed. This rugosa hybrid is subject to cane girdling, but looks to be
healthy. Austrian Copper and Persian Yellow, two ancient species roses also are
in bloom. Often they are the first to bloom, promising only a brief appearance.
These nature-designed roses are especially hardy. It’s as if nature is
scrimping on flowering energy to preserve rose genes for tenacity. Originally
from Central Asia, both the Persian Yellow and Austrian Copper are emigrants
from the Silk Road territory.
Others are more recent. The English Roses, (also known as Austin roses), have
been around only for a few decades. ‘Constance Spry’,
Abraham Darby’, ‘Gertrude Jekyll;’ ‘L.D. Braithwaite’ and ‘Graham
Thomas’ have proved to be stalwart as well as beautiful. ‘Othello’ is one
Austin rose named from William Shakespeare. Not all of the Austin roses transfer
successfully to Colorado, however, but many do. Gertrude Jekyll is struggling.
"It needs more sun," Eve suggests.
 As time goes by, the most beautiful, fragrant and sturdy will survive. Most
importantly, the garden invites a casual interest in the vast rose family.
Newcomers to Colorado may not realize that a variety of carefully selected roses
can flourish in our climate.
"In terms of providing an exquisite
environment for outdoor dining, screening and privacy, it’s a successful
garden," Eve says, "The Teahouse is such a rich, artistic environment—the
garden is culturally appropriate to a Central Asian teahouse and extends that
sensory experience." If roses can flourish in Central Asia, which has
weather and soil 
much like our own, then they will flourish here, too. The
Teahouse garden will help us understand which roses will show enough stamina and
durability to call Colorado their home.
A Roster of Dushanbe Teahouse Roses:
Species Roses:
- Persian Yellow (Rosa foetida persiana)
- Rosa glauca
- Austrian Copper (Rosa foetida, bicolor)
- Rosa setigera
Unknown Rose:
- Victorian Memory (shrub mystery rose)
 Shrub:
Pictured right, 'Golden Wings', hybridized by Roy Shepherd
- Constance Spry
- Golden Wings
- Abraham Darby
- Winchester Cathedral
- Robusta
- Sparrieshoop
- Theresa Bugnet, Hybrid rugosa
- Gertrude Jekyll
- Frau Dagmar Hastrup, Hybrid Rugosa
- Scharlachglut (Modern once blooming climber)
- Graham Thomas
- Banshee (Old Garden-shrub)
- Othello
- Applejack (Buck)
- Sea Foam
- Bonica
- Goldbusch, climber
- Dart’s Dash
- L.D. Braithwaite
- Lillian Gibson
 Old Garden Roses:
Louise Odier, pictured right
- William Lobb, Moss
- Mme. Hardy, Damask
- Louise Odier, Bourbon
- Rose de Rescht, Portland
- Gros Choux de Hollande, Centifolia
- Sydonie, Hybrid Perpetual
- Mme. Plantier, Alba
- Kazanlik, Damask
- Felicite Parmentier, Alba
- Salet, Moss
- Stanwell Perpetual, Hybrid Spinosissima
- Alba Sauveolens, Alba
- Rosa Mundi (old rose)
- ‘Banshee’ a found rose
- Ferdinand Pichard, Bourbon
 Canadian: all shrub roses,
William Baffin at left
- William Baffin
- John Davis
- Winnipeg Parks
- J.P. Connell
- Morden Blush
-
 Large-flowered climber:
pictured right
- Lawrence Johnston, found in a garden by Graham Stuart
Thomas
Moss Modern Shrub:
Polyantha:
Photos from top: Lawrence Johnston climbing rose, Mikl Brawner prunes a
rose, along the walkway of the Teahouse, buds from the Persian yellow species
rose, Abraham Darby modern shrub rose hybridized by David Austin, Eve Reshetnik,
Theresa Bugnet rose, patio seating
For more about the Teahouse, see our story: Tea
Emporiums in Colorado
For Harlequin's Gardens Nursery: www.harlequinsgardens.com
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