Melania Trump Unveils the Renovated White House Rose Garden

From Good Housekeeping

In late July, the White House announced that First Lady Melania Trump will oversee a renovation of the White House Rose Garden this summer. This weekend, she unveiled the result of that renovation—to vastly mixed reviews. No matter your political affiliation, there’s no denying the importance of this garden, given how many historic events have taken place here (including countless speeches and the hosting of various important figures). It’s where a high school-aged Bill Clinton met President John F. Kennedy, it’s where Tricia Nixon (daughter of President Richard Nixon) got married, and it’s the namesake of the "Rose Garden strategy." So how did the swath of land outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue become such an iconic setting? Well, the answer involves several administrations, thousands of plants, and the help of one famous horticulturist and philanthropist friend of the Kennedys. House Beautiful delves into the Rose Garden’s history, detailing its most important additions and amendments over the last century.

The Early 1900s (Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson)

In 1902, First Lady Edith Roosevelt founded a colonial garden on the site of what would later become the official White House Rose Garden 11 years later, in 1913, thanks to First Lady Ellen Louise Axson Wilson. You wouldn’t know from looking at it now, but this plot of land was once used for horse stables.

The 1930s (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

Following in his father’s landscaping footsteps, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (son of Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York's Central Park) made a name for himself by helping redesign the Rose Garden in 1935, under the commission of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Olmsted Jr. even brought furniture into the garden, made of cast iron, so that anyone who visited would have a place to sit and take in the lush scenery.

The 1960s (John F. Kennedy)

When you think of John F. Kennedy and the White House Rose Garden, horticulturist Rachel Lambert "Bunny" Mellon probably comes to mind—and rightfully so. Mellon was influential in shaping the Rose Garden into what it has looked like for the last 60 years. Her designs blended European inspiration with wholly American sensibility for a garden that represented the very kind of diplomacy to which it would act as a backdrop.

"JFK’s inspiration was Versailles," explains Linda Jane Holden, author of The Gardens of Bunny Mellon (2018) and the upcoming Garden Secrets of Bunny Mellon. "But he wanted an American garden, a green theater that would function as an extension of his office in the traditions of the two presidents he admired most—Washington and Jefferson."

"The garden was to be a place of beauty that was functional," Holden continues. "Kennedy's wish list was short—a lawn area where he could host up to a 1,000 people, surrounded with colorful flowers of the seasons, and new steps—democratic in design. The steps were to be a stage—a platform—the people he was honoring would stand above while he would stand on level with the audience.”

Some of the plants Bunny Mellon added to the garden included Merion Bluegrass (Holden says “it was a constant battle to maintain the grass,” but this kind of grass “was especially important” to JFK), four magnolia plants, and lines of Katherine crabapple trees in the longest beds of the north and south parts of the Rose Garden. Holden worked at the White House during President Ronald Reagan’s term, and she says she spent so much time in the garden—rather than at her desk in the West Wing—that her “vernacular became filled with the garden names.” So much so, in fact, that she named her firstborn Katherine, after the crabapple trees.

The 2000s (Donald Trump)

In late July, the New York Times reported that Melania Trump's renovation would include the addition of two walkways made of limestone, providing better accommodations for physical accessibility and newer technology that will be used for broadcasts from the garden. The Committee for the Preservation of the White House approved the plan, and private donations funded its redesign.

The newly renovated White House Rose Garden was unveiled on August 22, under First Lady Melania Trump’s vision, and it’s certainly a departure from the celebrated Bunny Mellon-designed garden that was in place since 1962. Although the renovation is meant to resemble its Kennedy-era appearance, it’s noticeably lacking in color and it now has a limestone walkway bordering the garden. Gone are the 10 crabapple trees that were planted 58 years ago—they’re going to be replanted in other parts of the White House grounds. The renovations caused quite a stir on the internet, with many questioning the motivation for the more obvious aesthetic departures (the hashtag #rosegardenmassacre trended on Twitter the day of the unveiling).

You can expect to see the garden’s new look up close very soon: This coming week, Melania Trump will make a speech from the Rose Garden during the Republican National Convention, so the new technology that was put in place as part of the renovation (including lighting and space for cameras) will be put to use.

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