The White House Gardens, Washington, D. C. 



The illustrations jliown are repruductitm^ of recent 

 photographs of the White House (lardens, adjoining the 

 Chief Executive's mansion, at Washington. 1). C. The 

 gardens located south of the White House, which were 

 known as the colonial gardens of Mrs. Roosevelt, were 

 originally designed and jilanted by the late Geo. H. 

 Brown, landscape gardener of the office of public build- 

 ings and grounds. These gardens were entirely re- 

 modeled last Fall and are divided into two sections — 

 known as the east and west gardens. Miss Beatrice 

 Jones, lanscape architect, prepared the plans for the 

 remodeled east garden. It called for material which 

 was not available, so after consultation with Mrs. Wil- 

 son it was decided to substitute some of the evergreens 

 and hedges called for but not to interfere with the .gen- 

 eral outline of the plans. 



The planting of the herbaceous borders and the four 

 panel beds was personally supervised over by Mrs. Wil- 

 son, whose excellent taste for blending colors was fully 

 demonstrated by the >plendid results produced at the 

 time the photographs here shown were taken. Some of 

 the evergreens and shrubs used in the east garden 

 are [uni|ieru,~ X'irginiana glauca, RoUinson's aijorvitae. 

 Osinanthus. iilicifolius, Euorymus japonica, Kalniics, 

 Althea and Roca sete.gera. The herbaceous jilants used 

 were Hollyhocks, Foxglox-es, Phloxes, Anemones, Lu- 

 pens Coreopsis, Seanthus. Wallflowers. Lilium Cande- 

 dum, Iberes, Sweet Al\ssum, Peonies, M\osotes Elnglish 

 Daisies, Pansies. Japanese and German Iris. 



The plan for the west garden was prepared by (Seorge 

 I'.urnap, landscape architect of the office of Public Build- 

 ings and (jrounds L)ei)artment, and it will be seen that 

 the design is entirely different from that of the east gar- 

 den, it being Mrs. Wilson's desire to avoid similarity. 



In the background of the photograph reproduced 

 of the west garden n\ the State. War and Navy 

 Departments can be seen and immediately in front 

 of it is the president's office building. On the right hand 

 side between the hedge and corridor is a walk leading 

 directh- to tlie president's office. The archwa\'s are of 

 pri\ct with a row on eitiier side of standard roses. Look- 



ing west are two \ery fine Irish yews, between which is 

 to be placed a statue with .i background of ivy. The 

 lattice work is ])lanted with climbing roses which, when 

 they reach the pergola, will be |)ermitted to hang over. 

 Some of the varieties of roses planted in this garden are 

 Killarneys. .\ntoine Revoire. Duchess de Brabant and 

 Lady Hillington. The effect ])roduced when these roses 

 were in full bloom was a beautiful one and brought forth 

 a .great deal of favorable comment from visitors to the 

 garden. Mrs. Wilson also supervised the ]ilant- 

 ing of this garden, and, as in the other garden, her re- 

 fined taste is very much in evidence. 



The construction work in the remodeling of these gar- 

 dens was under the immediate direction of Colonel W. 

 W . Harts, the engineer officer in charge of public build- 

 ings and grounds, who combines with his engineering 

 ability quite a taste for the beautiful. 



.Mrs. Wilson's interest is by no means confined to the 

 outside gardens, for she is equally as fond of the green- 

 houses as she is of the outside plantings. During her 

 spart moments she never misses an opportunity to pay 

 them a visit. Her favorite flowers are the roseS' — Sun- 

 burst. Radiance. American Beauty, and the Killarneys. 

 Enchantress is her favorite carnation, and these are 

 grown in abundance in the White House greenhouses. 

 Tropical flowering and folia.ge pla'nts are also grown in 

 these houses in large quantities to sujiply the interior 

 decorations of the Executive Mansion. 



The gardens and greenhouses are in charge of Head 

 Gardener Charles Henlock. Mr, Henlock has been eni- 

 ])loyed (Ml the White House grounds for nearly a quarter 

 of a century. For twenty years he was under the late 

 George H. Brown, but for the last five years has had 

 entire charge of the White House park, greenhouses 

 and gardens. He came direct to Washington from Eng- 

 land where he was previously employed under the late 

 .\rchibald Barron, superintendent of the Royal Horticul- 

 tural Society '.s gardens at Chiswick. Mr. Henlock's 

 ability is well exemplified in the perfect upkeep of the 

 White House grounds and the excellent stock which is 

 produced in the greenhouses. 



A VIEW OF THE WES 



i.XKDEN. WHITE HOUSE GROUNDS, .SHOWIXr, THE PRESIDEXT'S OFl'lCE IN FORECROUNn. ST.\TE, 

 W.\K AND NAVY DEPARTMENT BUII.DING IN BACKGROUND. 



