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How the White House Rose Garden and its plantings have changed over the past century
The garden has shifted from Mellon’s 1962 design to a limestone patio, with restorations, tree removals and ADA-compliant walkways added over time.
- President Donald Trump revamped the White House Rose Garden in 2025, replacing the central lawn with a white limestone patio and adding bronze statues of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton.
- Established by Ellen Wilson in 1913, the garden replaced Edith Roosevelt's Colonial Garden, planted 11 years earlier; it remained largely unchanged until 1961, when President John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned a redesign by Rachel Bunny Mellon.
- In 2020, Melania Trump commissioned a restoration to return the space to its 1962 aesthetic, adding 36-inch-wide limestone walkways for Disabilities Act compliance and replacing shrubs with blight-resistant NewGen boxwoods.
- Hosting dinners on the new patio, President Trump refers to the space as the "Rose Garden Club," while roses continue to bloom along the perimeter of the historic site.
- Inspired by Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland," the original design featured an expansive central lawn flanked by 12-foot-deep borders containing culinary herbs and Katherine crabapple trees used for important presidential speeches.
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12 Articles
Associated Press News+11 Reposted by 11 other sources
How the White House Rose Garden and its plantings have changed over the past century
President Donald Trump's two makeovers of the White House Rose Garden — including replacing the lawn with a patio — have drawn new attention to the iconic American space in recent years.
·New York, United States
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Total News Sources12
Leaning Left7Leaning Right1Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution64% Left
Bias Distribution
- 64% of the sources lean Left
64% Left
L 64%
C 27%
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