All the Presidents' Gardens: How the White House Grounds Have Grown with America

by Marta McDowell

Overview

This New York Times bestseller shares the rich history of the White House grounds, revealing how the story of the garden is also the story of America.

The 18-acres surrounding the White House have been an unwitting witness to history—kings and queens have dined there, bills and treaties have been signed, and presidents have landed and retreated. Throughout it all, the grounds have remained not only beautiful, but also a powerful reflection of American trends. In All the Presidents' Gardens bestselling author Marta McDowell tells the untold history of the White House grounds with historical and contemporary photographs, vintage seeds catalogs, and rare glimpses into Presidential pastimes. History buffs will revel in the fascinating tidbits about Lincoln’s goats, Ike's putting green, Jackie's iconic roses, Amy Carter's tree house, and Trump's controversial renovations. Gardeners will enjoy the information on the plants whose favor has come and gone over the years and the gardeners who have been responsible for it all. As one head gardener put it, “What’s great about the job is that our trees, our plants, our shrubs, know nothing about politics.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643262222
Publisher:	Timber Press, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/02/2024
Pages:	312
Sales rank:	243,367
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Marta McDowell’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, Woman’s Day, Country Gardening, and elsewhere. Her previous books include Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, All the Presidents’ Gardens, The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life, and Unearthing The Secret Garden. She consults for public gardens and private clients, writes and lectures on gardening topics, and teaches landscape history and horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden, where she studied landscape design. She lives, writes, and gardens in Chatham, New Jersey.

Read an Excerpt

Preface

The United States was too big. For a topic, that is. When my editor suggested I might write a history of American gardening, I sat at my desk. Stunned. It seemed a subject broad as a sea of grass, long and muddy as the Mississippi, elusive as a white whale that would, after a mad, obsessed chase, drag me under.

Regional differences are vast. What grows happily for friends in Denver sulks, then dies, in my humid New Jersey garden. Then there are questions of influence that vary across the wide waist of the continent: the Spanish with their patio and courtyard gardens from Florida to California, the tidy colonial gardens of New England, the immense plantations of the antebellum South. And with more than five-plus centuries, depending on how you count, the players involved in American horticulture and landscape design are legion.

Two people convinced me to take on this quest—one dead, one alive. The reason I study, teach, and write about garden history is because of Beatrix Jones Farrand (1872–1959). On my first visit to the grounds of Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown in the 1980s, I was smitten with it and Farrand, its designer, one of the country’s first landscape architects. It was about Beatrix Farrand that I taught my first class at the New York Botanical Garden.

Some years later one of my landscape history students, Seamus Maclennan, chose the White House grounds as the topic for his final project. It was riveting, a fifteen-minute chronicle of change in one of America’s most recognizable landscapes. There were victory gardens and flowerbeds, glasshouses and putting greens, all set in the context of American history. For the problem now before me, it would set bounds, but also pull in a cast of characters and a VIP setting. Before I embarked on this undertaking Seamus graciously gave me leave to use his idea, proving once again, if you want to hum along with the Rodgers and Hammerstein tune, “that if you become a teacher, by your pupils you’ll be taught.”

Even with this approach, given the number of presidents plus first ladies, gardeners, architects, and the like, I’ve had to impose some economies in terms of scope. If, for example, Zachary Taylor is your favorite president, you will be disappointed. As neither he nor his wife were involved in the White House gardens, they do not appear in the narrative. “Summer White Houses” were eliminated, though I was sorely tempted by places like Warm Springs, Georgia, Franklin Roosevelt’s retreat south of Atlanta, and Rancho del Cielo, Reagan’s Western White House. The fourteen White House head gardeners’ biographies tell an interesting story in their own right so we see them together in “First Gardeners” at the back of the book.

I have defaulted to common names of plants in the body of the book. For those who prefer proper botanical nomenclature, you will find it in a back section, “All the Presidents’ Plants”—a look at White House plantings over the past two centuries—and the index. If you had hoped for a complete list of plants named for presidents and first ladies, I did too. Unfortunately in most cases these cultivars have not stood the test of time, at least in terms of the marketplace. A rhododendron named ‘Mrs. Grover Cleveland’ might have been a big seller in the 1890s but soon disappeared from the nursery trade.

Long-term White House head gardener Irvin Williams once said, “What’s great about the job is that our trees, our plants, our shrubs, know nothing about politics.” Despite the presidential focus of the book, I have attempted to emulate the politics of plants. Because whether gardeners lean right or left, blue or red, we are united by a love of green growing things and the land in which they grow.

Editorial Reviews

A lighthearted survey of the White House gardens.” —Library Journal

“Given its timeless grace, the visitor today might think that the Rose Garden was always a part of the grounds of America’s first garden, but as Marta McDowell’s absorbing book drives home, the 18 acres around the executive mansion have been constantly tweaked, changed and replanted over the past two centuries.” —The Washington Post 

“McDowell’s entertaining look at the gardens at America’s premier residence illustrates the nation’s horticultural aspirations, trends, and history. . . . A thorough researcher, McDowell unearths little-known stories and vivid details to illuminate important personalities and provide insight into our gardening past. Often injecting wit, she explains how the White House has dealt with typical garden pests (raccoons who fish in water gardens) as well as atypical problems (e.g., helicopter winds or hosting 1,000 guests at a time). Resplendent with historical images, the work also includes plant lists and short bios of key White House gardeners. . . . [An] informative gem of a book.” —Library Journal

“History is often best learned from stories, and there are plenty of anecdotes here. . . . The writing is conversational and inviting, as one might find when visiting a garden with someone who knows it well. Photographs, line drawings, paintings, maps, and other documents add to the interesting stories. . . . a delightful and elucidating work.” —Booklist starred review​

"A delightful dig through White House gardens. [McDowell] plots their history from the Washington administration to the Obamas. . . . Her descriptions of the grounds and evolving garden tastes are complemented with a colorful array of illustrations. McDowell fills the book with juicy tidbits: the last cow to graze on the White House lawn (1912) was named Pauline Wayne; Herbert Hoover wanted ‘the help’ to seem invisible, so they hid behind hedges when he passed by." —Publishers Weekly

“Long may there be erudite and entertaining books like All the Presidents’ Gardens to enlighten and educate about American garden history.” —The American Gardener

“Marta’s ‘voice’ creates a sense of fascination within the reader. Her wit and insight shines through as she describes the White House Gardens, sometimes utilitarian and spare, and other times lush and extravagant. . . . The greatest achievement of Marta’s book, though, isn’t the precise documentation of the history of The First Garden, if you will, but in the way she weaves the tales of American ingenuity and preservation into it.” —NYBG's Plant Talk

“A well-presented history of the White House garden, which doubles as a companion to early American garden history.” —Gardens Illustrated

“This book’s deeply researched material is impressive. . . . The book is a kind of TMZ of presidential horticultural history that will delight gardeners and history buffs alike.” —Country Gardens 

“A really fun book. . . . It’s also very well-researched by author Marta McDowell and exhaustively covers every administration from George Washington to Barack Obama, complete with lists of head gardeners and plants.” —Garden Rant

“A refreshing change from the onslaught of political memoirs. .  . . Through the lens of the White House gardens, one can get a sense of America’s rich horticultural and garden history.” —Hortus

“Post-election rehabilitation for gardeners” —The Triangle Gardener

“Rife with well-researched anecdotes that illuminate the past as well as contemporary and historical photographs and illustrations, the book presents a fresh “nonpartisan” perspective on American life. . . . The book will be equally appealing to the horticulturalist and the history enthusiast.” —Coastal Home

“it’s full of fascinating archival photos and illustrations, and the stories and each garden offer glimpses of life in America (and the White House) through history.” —Houston Chronicle

“This charming, copiously illustrated book is a treasure trove for historians and horticulturalists alike.” —Elle Décor

“A fascinating insight for gardeners and historians of one of the world’s most famous homes.” —RHS Garden Magazine

“From the moment a spade first broke ground for construction of the White House, the 18 acres of presidential gardens have served as a backdrop to history: a social commentary, fashion statement and a lesson in agriculture for the nation. All the Presidents’ Gardens by historian Marta McDowell is U.S. history in full bloom.” —California Bountiful

From the Publisher