It’s summertime at the White House. The lemon-sweet fragrance of Andrew Jackson’s magnolias drifts up and around the Truman Balcony, wafting over the Rose Garden. Tourists from around the world gather behind the black-iron south fence, aiming their cameras at Michelle Obama’s kitchen garden. Presidential vegetables haven’t come in for this much scrutiny since George H. W. Bush voiced distaste for broccoli.

The visitors peering at the nation’s newest garden through the fence along the southern perimeter of the White House grounds can’t quite smell the Jackson magnolias. A long and lush South Lawn, the setting for annual Easter egg rolls and presidential helicopter landings, separates the everyday throngs from the shiny evergreen trees hugging the executive mansion walls. But as the nation’s “first bees” leave their hives near Michelle Obama’s garden and dip and glide over the grounds in search of nectar, the gazes of visitors lengthen and follow, resting ultimately on the bountiful crowns of the historic White House trees. Trees ring the mansion, spilling into the surrounding acreage collectively known as the President’s Park. The National Park Service carefully tends it all: the White House grounds, the Ellipse—setting for the National Christmas Tree, a mature Colorado blue spruce—and, across a “Princeton” American-elmlined Pennsylvania Avenue, a thickly treed Lafayette Park. Arborists had some heavy lifting to do throughout the President’s Park this past winter after Washington’s tree-damaging blizzards.

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Not all of the White House’s history can be found within its walls;
the trees and gardens around it have their own stories to tell.

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Although the first lady’s bok choy and rhubarb are currently receiving the hottest White House botanical press, the stalwart collection of presidential trees at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been standing sentinel since the 19th century, and will go on standing long after the season’s last edible root is harvested.

The current White House collection is comprised of 37 official commemorative plantings by presidents and first ladies, with more than half the trees representing species native to eastern North America. White and willow oaks, American elms, southern magnolias, and flowering dogwoods dominate. Among non-native specimens, the little-leaf linden is the most popular commemorative choice, selected by both Bush administrations to replace trees planted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. George H. W. Bush replaced one of FDR’s lindens in the company of Queen Elizabeth II. The original tree had been planted by FDR to honor the coronation of her father, King George VI. Little-leaf lindens were also planted by President Bill Clinton and, most recently, in October 2009, by President Barack Obama. A close relative of the American basswood or linden, the European little-leaf linden produces fragrant clusters of pale yellow flowers during late spring. TheWhite House commemorative tree collection is interspersed with hundreds of other specimen trees within the 18 fenced acres of the executive mansion grounds.

Wielding a spade for the White House photo pool has become de rigueur. However, in planting her vegetable garden as a boon to the health of the nation’s youth—and running somewhat counter to her South Side Chicago image—Michelle Obama follows a distinguished line of presidents and first ladies who have been serious gardeners and tree lovers. George Washington, who chose the setting for the executive mansion, and Thomas Jefferson, who tended some of its first gardens, were passionate and highly accomplished horticulturists, as any visitor to Monticello and Mt. Vernon knows. Trees planted by George Washington or under his direction still thrive at Mt. Vernon, and Thomas Jefferson planned and executed the first street tree planting on record in the District of Columbia.

According to White House Historical Association author Dr. William Seale, whom I interviewed for this article: “The glory of the White House grounds would one day be its trees, and although none of Jefferson’s is known to survive, he started the tradition.”

Jefferson is survived by an arboreal quote attributed to his time in office: “I wish I was a despot that I might save the noble, the beautiful trees that are daily falling sacrifices to the cupidity of their owners, or the necessity of the poor… The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder; it pains me to an unspeakable degree.”

John Quincy Adams, the sixth American president, was known as “the tree-planting Mr. Adams.” In his White House Historical Association book, The White House Garden, Dr. Seale describes Adams as “an experienced gardener who found pleasure and recreation in digging in the dirt himself.” One of his American elms survived at the White House until 1991. After death, its age was authenticated. A young tree propagated from the original 1826 elm was planted on the South Lawn by First Lady Barbara Bush.

In my conversations with Dr. Seale, he cited President Rutherford B. Hayes, whose administration inaugurated the first Easter egg roll, as a particular tree-lover, although Hayes is not survived at the White House by any known existing specimens.

Many other American presidents have shared a reverence for trees. Teddy is the Roosevelt associated with wilderness preservation, but in 1933 The Washington Post Magazine reported: “The tree-loving nature of Franklin D. Roosevelt has come to rest in a virtual Eden…where the personalities of America’s most honored citizens are reflected in trees.” The story continues: “For years the planting and management of trees have been his chief hobby on his Hyde Park estate in New York. As governor of New York he set in motion the necessary machinery for one of the greatest tree planting programs a state has ever undertaken.” In addition to the little-leaf lindens that were replaced during the Bush administrations, FDR is survived by a white oak and a southern magnolia quite close to each other on the eastern (Treasury Department) side of the White House.

Until Michelle Obama began sowing radish seeds, the Rose Garden was the reigning White House garden star. In 1913 First Lady Ellen Wilson, the first wife of Woodrow Wilson, planted roses near her husband’s West Wing office. Inadvertently, she had chosen the site for America’s most historic garden. But the modern-day Rose Garden was inaugurated by none other than President John F. Kennedy, who enlisted the help of his garden-wise friend Rachel Lambert (“Bunny”) Mellon after he and first Lady Jacqueline Kennedy viewed the royal gardens of Europe on their legendary state visit early in his presidency. Mrs. Mellon, in turn, sought the creative input of her friend Perry Wheeler, a landscape architect practicing in Washington. A young Irvin M. Williams, now retired after a half-century of service as White House Superintendent of Grounds, assisted with the Rose Garden design, laying out lines of Katherine crabapples along the garden’s perimeter, and placing a saucer magnolia in each corner.

President Kennedy took great interest in his garden’s progress. According toWolf Von Eckardt, Washington Post architectural critic at the time: “He would always walk through it on his way to his office and back for lunch or dinner. Many times he would stop and, if Williams was in sight, ask him one thing or another. As his garden grew, so did his knowledge of its plants and wonders… It was the only thing he ever bragged about… Often late at night he would walk out to clear hismind to seek inspiration. The garden had turned out just as he had hoped it would.”

During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, President Kennedy described the White House Rose Garden as the “brightest spot in the somber surroundings of the last few days.” He chose the garden as the site to bestow honorary citizenship upon Sir Winston Churchill. He would also greet many of his guests there, and no matter what the occasion, he took every opportunity to share his newfound knowledge of the trees, shrubs, and flowers with his visitors. Kennedy’s Rose Garden design and its selected trees are retained to this day.

Following the tragic death of her husband in November of 1963, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy requested that a simple basket of Rose Garden offerings be placed beside his grave. Von Eckardt poetically described the contents of this basket: “Roses still blooming, berries from the crabapples, and a few flowers that had survived the first frost.”

When Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the plant-wise first lady chose to honor Jacqueline Kennedy by dedicating the garden opposite the Rose Garden to her. Tucked into the back of the White House East Wing, the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden—sometimes called the First Lady’s Garden or the East Garden—was envisioned and begun during the Kennedy administration, and completed during the Johnson years. Sculpted evergreens and lindens with pockets of seasonal flowers planted between them are among the features of this garden. When Jenna Bush, daughter of George W. and Laura Bush, became a bride, she and her new husband Henry Hager adorned a brick walkway near the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden with a commemorative “Cherokee Princess” flowering dogwood, according to her mother, who said that planting the dogwood was the groom’s idea. The flowering dogwood is both the official tree and flower of Virginia, where Mr. Hager is from.

I interviewed Laura Bush for this story during the spring of 2010 from her ranch in Crawford, Texas. When I asked about her favorite White House trees, she was unequivocal: “The most magnificent is the Andrew Jackson magnolia.” (This is actually two trees that grow closely side by side and are often referred to as one.) Steeped in romantic lore, the Jackson magnolias are the oldest commemorative presidential trees at the White House. She described their “big beautiful blooms” and said: “From the residence on the second floor, [they are] at eye level.” Mrs. Bush chose to feature the Jackson magnolias on the couple’s 2005 post-Katrina Christmas card in a painting by JamieWyeth, and on china used to entertain in the Oval Room next to the Truman balcony. The china design also featured butterflies and other insects that visit the South Lawn, according to Mrs. Bush.

The oft-told story of the Jackson magnolias describes President Andrew Jackson as a grief-stricken man as he traveled to Washington to assume the presidency. His beloved wife Rachel had just died, her death from heart trouble hastened by a scandal that plagued his candidacy. Rachel Jackson had been previously married, and her first husband hadn’t finalized the divorce. Charges of adultery were hurled during the campaign, and she died between the election and the time he left for Washington.

According to anecdotal lore, Jackson wanted to have “something green” in Washington to remember her by, and he brought the magnolias from their home, the Hermitage, near Nashville. Although the trees appear in mid-19th-century photographs, the details and dates of the story cannot be corroborated by historical record. Dr. Seale, for one, questions the veracity of some of the story’s elements— but the lore is thicker than the magnolias’ shiny, leathery leaves, as told in both Washington and Nashville.

One of the White House magnolias was grazed by a small plane that crashed onto the South Lawn in 1994, and the tree suffered minor damage,mainly to its bark. The presumed parent tree next to Andrew and Rachel Jackson’s graves at the Hermitage fared far worse when it was brought down by a devastating tornado in 1998, along with more than 1,200 other trees at the Jackson home.

The Jackson magnolias at the White House received another sort of “cut” when they were removed from the $20 bill in the late 1990s. The old bill featured Andrew Jackson on one side, and the south face of the White House with the Jackson magnolias on the other. The “new” bill, now more than a decade old, shows the north front of the White House. At the time of the bill switch, I wrote a story about the Jackson magnolias for TheWashington Post. Garden editor Adrian Higgins gave the piece the clever title: “Jackson’s Magnolias Lose Their Currency.” A Treasury Department spokesman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing explained to me that the north side of the White House was chosen in order to give the bill a “cleaner, more modern and symmetrical look.”

Although the Andrew Jackson magnolias have been excised from the currency, when I asked Irvin Williams how long he expected the trees to live, he answered: “I hope forever.” For now, they are delighting the Obamas with their large, fragrant blooms, as they have delighted a long line of first families before them. In greeting visitors to the spring 2010 tour of the White House gardens and grounds, Michelle Obama invited the public to “wander past red, white, and pink azaleas, more than 8,000 tulips, ornamental cherry trees, dogwoods, and the Southern magnolia trees planted by President Andrew Jackson in honor of his beloved wife, Rachel.”

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Melanie Choukas-Bradley is the author of CITY OF TREES: The Complete Field Guide to the Trees of Washington, D.C. She is involved with the Audubon Naturalist Society, Casey Trees, and the U.S. Botanic Garden, and is vice president of the Maryland Native Plant Society.

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