The following article is taken from Havana BID’s monthly E-newsletter, “On Havana Street”, www.onhavanastreet.com
Gayle Jetchick, Executive Director.

Stop and Smell the Roses at The Gardens on Havana:  The Lisa Strawn Memorial Rose Garden

Saturday, August 29:  Ice Cream Social and Dedication of the Lisa Strawn Memorial Rose Garden at The Gardens on Havana
The date has been set for the dedication of the Lisa Strawn Memorial Rose Garden and official grand opening of the entire Gardens on Havana mixed-use center.  You are all invited to join us on Saturday, August 29 at 7 p.m. for the official dedication/ribbon cutting ceremony, a tour of the garden and an old-fashioned community ice cream social.  The Aurora Symphony Orchestra's brass quintet will be on hand to set the mood.  The Gardens on Havana is our new activity center and is putting the "community" back into our On Havana Street community, something that we used to have when the former Buckingham Square Mall was it its heyday.  We hope you can come out for a couple of hours on a hot August night to enjoy some ice cream, music, socialize with your neighbors and stop to smell the roses!

  
Left: the holes are being dug for the rose bushes; right: a row of Knock Out Shrub Roses planted along the walkway.
  
Three of the beautiful shrub roses planted in the Lisa Strawn Memorial Rose Garden at The Gardens on Havana
(left to right) Golden Wings, Winnipeg Parks and Sea Foam.

The lovely brick courtyard and beautiful, unique benches are in place at the rose garden at the east end of Garden Drive at The Gardens on Havana.  The obelisk public art piece will be installed soon.  On Thursday and Friday, June 11 and 12, the Land Tech crew was on site to amend the soil and dig the holes to plant over 100 rose bushes, add drip irrigation, fabric weed barrier and mulch.  That's a lot of holes to dig!  Thank you Moses and crew from Land Tech for all of your hard work!   Miller Weingarten, the developer, has a custom-made 6' wide trellis on order which should arrive soon.

The rosarians at The Denver Rose Society have donated their time and talents to plan this unique, water-wise rose garden.  I am the instigator of the project, soliciting the help of my fellow DRS rosarians to come up with a rose garden through which we can share our love of roses with the community.  All of the roses are favorites of the rosarians from DRS and are all known to thrive in our sometimes difficult, high-plains Colorado Front Range climate.  We have selected many Canadian shrub roses and EarthKind series roses that are very sustainable and hardy.  We have arranged the colors and sizes of roses together to maximize the beauty of the garden.  There are 22 varieties with over 100 bushes, including:  

1. Winnipeg Parks Shrub Rose, a Canadian Parkland Series cherry red rose (pictured)
2. Golden Celebration, a David Austin English Shrub Rose (very fragrant)
3. Carefree Beauty Shrub Rose, a lovely pink 3' x 3' bush
4. Carefree Wonder Shrub Rose, from Meilland, France, continuously flowers
5. LD Braithwaite Shrub Rose, a lovely, sweet scented David Austin English Rose
6. Golden Wings (pictured above) pale yellow with globing amber stamens
7. Gourmet Popcorn Mini Shrub Rose, 2' x 2' white w/musky rose scent
8. Morden Sunrise Shrub Rose, a Canadian Parkland Series rose, sunny yellow
9. Morden Blush Shrub Rose, a Canadian Parkland Series rose, light pink
10. Victorian Memory Climber, nearly thornless pink climber--a favorite "found rose" from Colorado (for the trellis)
11. The Fairy dwarf shrub rose, an EarthKind series rose, prolific bloomer, pink
12. Shafira Asma Shrub Rose, another David Austin English Rose, strong, sweet scent, pink
13. Knock Out Shrub Rose--An EarthKind series rose, cherry red, continuous flowering
14. Champlain Shrub Rose--Named after the explorer who discovered Quebec, lovely red
15. Sally Holmes Shrub Rose--a modern shrub rose, absolutely beautiful with clusters of 10-40 whitish-pink flowers per stem
16. Sea Foam--An EarthKind series rose, low white spreader, tough as nails (pictured)
17. Graham Thomas Shrub Rose, David Austin English rose, sunny yellow, strong rose scent
18. La Sevillana Shrub Rose, a very much loved landscape rose in Colorado, red
19. Stanwell Perpetual Shrub Rose, an exceptionally fragrant heirloom shrub, continuous bloomer, white
20. Adelaide Hoodless Shrub Rose--A Canadian Parkland Series rose, intricate red blooms
21. Bonica shrub rose--from Meilland, France, lovely tiny pink hybrid-tea shaped blooms
22. Golden Unicorn--A Griffith Buck rose, peachy gold color (pictured above), sweet honey fragrance

Miller Weingarten arranged to have the rose garden named after Lisa Strawn, the economic development/retail specialist for the City of Aurora who was instrumental in making the redevelopment of the former Buckingham Square Mall come to fruition.  Lisa had been battling cancer for many years and was too ill to attend our, "Crash--Celebrate" demolition celebration on January 8, 2008, when we gathered to see the old mall being taken down.  Lisa passed away shortly after that celebration, but was aware that we had named the rose garden in her honor.  Sometime in August, we plan to have a party to dedicate the new rose garden and officially open the new lifestyle center--The Gardens on Havana.  In the future, we will be hosting classes on rose care, pruning, rose garden planning and planting, and we will offer tours of the rose garden, explaining the history behind the unique roses that were selected.  The Gardens on Havana was designed to be a showcase of xeriscape in Colorado, and the water wise rose garden is the highlight of this new mixed-use development.  When you are at The Gardens on Havana, take some time out of your hectic schedule to stop and smell the roses! (Gayle Jetchick: gmjetchick@comcast.net)