White House Rose Garden

The White House Rose Garden is a garden bordering the Oval Office and the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., United States. The garden is approximately 125 feet long and 60 feet wide (38 meters by 18 meters). It balances the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden on the east side of the White House Complex.

The White House Rose Garden was established in 1913 by Ellen Loise Axson Wilson, wife of Woodrow Wilson, on the site of a previous colonial garden established by First Lady Edith Roosevelt (wife of Theodore Roosevelt) in 1902. Prior to 1902 (in the time before the automobile revolutionized transportation), the area contained extensive stables, housing various horses and coaches, on the grounds of the present-day Oval Office, Cabinet Room, and Rose Garden. During the 1902 Roosevelt renovation, First Lady Edith Roosevelt insisted on having a proper colonial garden in order to help replace the conservatory rose house that had formerly stood there.

In 1961, during the John F. Kennedy administration, the garden was largely redesigned by Rachel Lambert Mellon concurrently with extensive repair work to the East Garden. Mellon created a space with a more defined central lawn, bordered by flower beds that were planted in a French style whilst largely using American botanical specimens. The present-day garden follows the same layout first established by Mellon, where each flower bed is planted with a series of 'Katherine' crabapples and Littleleaf lindens bordered by low diamond-shaped hedges of thyme. Additionally, the outer edges to the flower bed which face the central lawn are edged with boxwood, and each of the four corners to the garden are punctuated by Magnolia × soulangeana; specifically, obtaining specimens that were found growing along the banks of the Tidal Basin by Mellon.

Ever since then, roses have served as the primary flowering plants in the garden, including large numbers of "Queen Elizabeth" grandiflora roses, along with the tea roses "Pascale", "Pat Nixon", and "King's Ransom". A shrub rose, "Nevada Rose", also serves to add a cool note of white coloration to the landscaping. Seasonal flowers are further interspersed to add nearly year-round color and variety to the garden. Some of the Spring blooming bulbs planted in the present-day Rose Garden include jonquil, daffodil, fritillaria, grape hyacinth, tulips, chionodoxa and squill. Summer blooming annuals are changed on a near yearly basis. In the fall, chrysanthemum and flowering kale bring color leading all the way up until the early winter days. In something of a decidedly odd tradition, each and every summer sees garden gnomes taken and placed throughout the Rose Garden on July 1st - the number of which representing the number of living presidents at that particular moment in time.

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