![]() For example, the Obama’s edible garden’s location adhered to the 1935 Olmsted plan. Landscape historians will appreciate the tidbits McDowell sprinkles throughout about the historical integrity of the gardens on White House grounds. Photos go beyond the plant world to delightfully include the animal kingdom-like Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.’s pet macaw, Eli, who lived in the greenhouses Laddie Boy, Warren Harding’s Airedale terrier, who had his own portrait taken in the Rose Garden and a particularly wee First Garden regular visitor in the 1920s, Pete the squirrel, as he was dubbed by the press corps-all of which were welcome in the gardens. Plant lovers will be pleased to see photographs and illustrations of vintage plant cultivars, such as althaea ( Hibiscus syriacus), commonly known today as rose of Sharon, and amaryllis cultivars bred specially for the Rutherford B. The text is complemented by historic documents and photographs, starting with Thomas Jefferson’s impeccably kept records, finishing with photographs of children, Michelle Obama at their sides, as they tend the soil in the White House Kitchen Garden in 2009. ![]() Sheep grazed the White House lawn during World War I. (In fact, Marta, could you go back in time and rewrite all my high-school and college history books?) ![]() Her wit and insight shines through as she describes the White House Gardens, sometimes utilitarian and spare, and other times lush and extravagant. It is Marta’s “voice” that creates a sense of fascination within the reader. If Marta McDowell’s last book, Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, was a stroll down the memory lane of childhood whimsy, her latest book, All the Presidents’ Gardens: Madison’s Cabbages to Kennedy’s Roses-How the White House Grounds Have Grown with America, feels like a journey into the secret, lesser-known world of political plantscapes that shaped foreign policy and inspired American lifestyles.Īlthough one might think Presidential garden history would be a bit dry, I can assure you it is not-in fact, I read the entire book in one evening. Posted in History, Shop/Book Reviews on May 26 2016, by Jenifer Willis Review: Marta McDowell’s Latest Book, All the Presidents’ Gardens
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