The White House Spring Garden Tour

Every year (possibly since the 70s), in spring and fall the white house throws open its gates to the general public so they may have a glimpse of its garden. We were one of the lucky ones to visit this year, reaching at around 8:00am to join the line for tickets.

I quite liked the design of the ticket with its doodle of flowers and leaves, green and white. Very elegant!

And so we strolled in, admiring the lawns and huge trees, each of which had a signboard in front of it showing which president or first lady was the one who planted it. Quite a few were by the Bushes - senior and junior, and some by the Clintons.

 

 

We were handed a booklet during the tour, a publication that was made possible through the generosity of the White House Historical Association, a private, non- profit educational organization. Here is some information from this excellent resource:

 

"The White House grounds are the oldest continuously maintained landscape in the United States.

The White House's first resident, John Adams, requested that a garden be planted before his arrival in 1800. Unfortunately, he was defeated shortly thereafter by Thomas Jefferson and never enjoyed the produce from the White House Grounds. While in office, Jefferson made plans for planting trees and established winding pathways surrounded by rhododendron and other American shrubbery.

In the 1820s, John Quincy Adams formally established a White House gardening program. It is said that he liked to dig in the flower beds early in the morning and claimed to have planted over a thousand plants during his tenure. His successor, Andrew Jackson, continued to develop the gardening program, adding an orangery in which to grow fruit during the winter."

 

 

 

 

We were excited to be so up close; apparently in one of the past tours President Obama had come out and waved to the crowds. No such thrills this time though.

 

 

 This sight was familiar, thanks to the media coverage of the President's addresses.

 

 

 

It was nice to have the band playing while we waited in the lines

 

The most recent addition to the grounds is the kitchen garden, established in 2009 by First Lady Michelle Obama along with students from local schools. I read (again in the lovely booklet provided along with the ticket) that the food grown here is used to provide for the first family and State dinners. One third of it is donated to a local charitable organization that provides services around homelessness.
 

 

 

We thought we were done with the sights for the day as we strolled out, but there was more - horses from the National Parks service, standing outside, much to the amusement and excitement of all the kids (and some adults).

Spring in Charlotte, NC

At around this time every year, my aunt in Charlotte NC sends across pictures of the spring bloomers in her garden. A true flower-lover, she writes -

"This is the time of year when life is renewed in my yard and my spirits are lifted along with the blooms!"

First on are the hyacinths. Much like the tulips, these plants are of South West Asian origin, but have been grown so widely for commercial purposes in the Netherlands that many assume that is where they are from.

Then come the tulips and the pansies. 

And lastly, the bright beautiful Narcissus Daffodils

Do take a look at the pictures from 2009 and 2010

LJ's spring blooms

From charlotte, north carolina

pink hyacinths

pansies and grape hyacinths

double tulips

tulips - a pink and a white one from the same bulb!

LJ's tulips (& other spring bloomers)

A dear aunt of mine has taken to tulips and the pictures she shared with me were just so pretty that they warranted a post on my blog! Of course, i had to do a little bit of googling to add a little to my knowledge on tulips before i could publish this.
So here goes:
The species is perennial, from bulbs and typically there is one flower to each stem, though there are some varieties with up to four flowers per stem... never seen these! The flowers usually have three petals and three sepals. The flowers have six distinct stamens and the stigmas are distinctly three lobed. Now, aunt dearest, since you have the opportunity of taking a closer look at the ones in your garden, tell me if all of this is indeed true?

If i had to hazard a guess as to where the tulip is native to i would go with northern europe, thanks to all the touristy images of Holland that sweep through my mind. However, the tulip is native to southern europe, northern africa and asia from anatolia/iran in the west to china in the east. The centre of diversity of the genus is in the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan. Both the flower and its name originated in persian empire. The tulip or lale as it is called in Farsi? is indigenous to Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan.It was probably introduced to northwestern europe during the time of the Ottaman Empire (sixteenth century). The flower has always held a special place in Persian literature and a glass of wine is often likened to a Laleh. The word tulip, which earlier in English appeared in such forms as tulipa or tulipant, entered the language by way of French tulipe and its obsolete form tulipan or by way of Modern Latin tulīpa, from Ottoman Turkish tülbend, "muslin, gauze".

In north america tulip festivals are held every may, the most popular being the one in skagit valley WA, woodburn OR (yes, i have been there and have a million pictures) and in Ottawa Canada.

So with all that said, here are the mesemerizing ones from my aunt's garden in North Carolina:
Included at the very end are the geraniums and the grape hyacinths.