Good morning! CNN is your pool for today’s reveal of the renovated Rose Garden. TV and stills and print are being taken out in shifts. We will feed back when we are finished here - currently delayed in a hold by Palm Room until POTUS movement complete.
*note: we were asked by the White House not to include images, still or video, of the set-up ongoing on the South Lawn for RNC events.
We have seen the garden from the ground level and are awaiting our turn to go up to the roof of the colonnade for a second position.
There is still a large green grass center - with new grass we were not permitted to walk on. Instead, we were allowed only on the new limestone pathways that form an outer border around the grass and an inner border for the boxwood and flowers. Most notable is the absence of the 10 crabapple trees which were part of the original design. However, per a White House official, the shade they were casting over the flowers, as well as root growth, compromised the efficacy of keeping the other plantings alive and healthy. The official adds the trees were taken to the offsite White House greenhouse to be cared for and then at some point they will be replanted around the WH grounds.
The new flowers are not huge. The colors are mostly whites and pastels, with some small hot pink roses and a few lavender colored flowers.
Also notable, there is no longer the area that most of us note as the location of the “Obama beer summit” at the east side of the garden. That area has been replaced by new limestone pavers and steps - the release given to press at this event says it will be “the new site for an unannounced art installation.”
All of the information below was collected by your pooler on background from a White House official who was present, and most of it is also in the release:
This is a new garden, and it is expected to grow in concert across all of the flowers and boxwoods, rather than random replacement of sections or seasonal substitutions.
The predominant Rose veritable used in the new design is the “JFK Rose,” a white flower. These are along the length of the garden, closest to the colonnade on one side, and the slope down to the South Lawn on the other. The “middle” of the plantings are filled with other smaller pink roses, and several “Peace” roses, which are sort of yellow/light pink (description by your pooler, who is not a horticulturist!) The other notable addition is the “Pope John Paul II Rose,” a taller plant with white roses, in honor of of his visit to the White House in 1979, the first visit of a Pope to the White House.
There is a place at the front of the beds for seasonal displays, but the actual garden itself is designed to remain as is and grow on its own.
A diamond-like pattern of boxwoods has also been reissued, part of the homage to the original 1962 design.