People Are Not Happy With Melania Trump's White House Rose Garden Renovation, Call Her Out Online
Ever since 1961, when President Kennedy came up with the idea to design the Rose Garden at the west end of the White House, the garden has become an icon by itself.
Designed by the gardener Rachel Lambert Mellon, it has been home to a colorful selection of magnolias, cherry trees, roses, tulips, and other botanical beauties. Both harmonious and subtle, it has framed the view toward the Cabinet Room and the Oval Office and reflected every changing pattern of American history.
But on Saturday, the First Lady unveiled her Rose Garden remake that was meant to bring the space to its original roots. But the redesign received strong backlash on social media with people being far from impressed with the results. The internet dubbed Melania’s makeover “#RoseGardenMassacre,” comparing the result to a lifeless "parking lot." The hashtag is now trending and people have a lot to say about it.
After you're done reading this one, check out our new article on the gardener who stepped in to defend Melania's redesign.
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The iconic Rose Garden came to being after President Kennedy and the first lady returned from a state visit to France. In the summer of 1961, they visited the gardener Rachel Lambert Mellon and invited her to bring the space back to life.
In a piece written for the White House Historical Association in the early 1980s, Mellon revealed that “Kennedy noted that the White House had no garden equal in quality or attractiveness to the gardens that he had seen and in which he had been entertained in Europe. There he had recognized the importance of gardens surrounding an official residence and their appeal to the sensibilities of all people.”
The garden was begun in the spring of 1962 and finished at the end of the same year. Most importantly, its creator said that “It was truly President Kennedy’s garden” and he always showed how much he cared about it.
This! What the heck is with her dark depressing style of decorating?
Every time I look at pictures of the ruined—-sorry—-“renovated” Rose Garden, my first thought is “Where TF are the roses”? Then again, we must remember her rows of red “Handmaiden” Christmas trees. A woman of little taste and imagination—-of course, look who she married. Unless drumpf has a meltdown tantrum from sensory overload when he sees too many colors all at once.
And removing old growth trees and roses put in by past First Ladies (who actually were ladies) is unconscionable.
That Melania Trump took on a task so clearly associated with the Kennedys doesn’t come as a surprise, since President Trump told Fox & Friends that “We have our own Jackie O. It’s called Melania, Melania T.”
Today, the flowers in the garden are largely pastels chosen according to the tastes of the first lady, including taller white roses, which were in honor of the first papal visit to the White House by Pope John Paul II in 1979. The most obvious change to the garden was the addition of a 3-foot-wide limestone walking path bordering the central lawn.
But after the first lady tweeted the first images from her renovation, the new Rose Garden received many mixed reactions.
"Soul? We don't need soul! Color? We don't need color!"... and that sums up the Trumps IMHO
In all fairness... even Trump's own sister thinks he's a piece of turd.
Trump: "It was the largest audience ever to witness an inauguration, period, both in person and around the globe." What a delusional egomaniacal moron.
Because they would’ve preferred Nixon over Kennedy. But even Pat Nixon knew better than to cut down Jackie’s trees!
Goli soda, nobody needs that pro-trump negativity today. Thanks.
She could go into cemetery landscaping—-since she’ll have to find a job when drumpf goes to prison and all his assets are RICO’d. And she’s now too old for the “modeling” she used to do.
All white. Like he envisions the US—-a country built by diverse groups of immigrants. Including his ancestors, and his wife.
Well, what TF does the drumpf family know about a kitchen garden? They don’t even know where the kitchen is.
Puleeease... we are not her (or his) citizens. We are citizens of the US who made a bad choice and are now paying for it.
Once they’re gone, the next First Lady will need to replace the trees with seedlings grown from cuttings of the originals. Thing is, it’ll take 60 years to get them to where they were before she cut them down.
Grass and pavement. The two most ecologically destructive landscaping features.
Yes! She cut down—-murdered—-old growth trees planted 60 years ago!
Goli Soda, why b***h about the Obamas? Barack isn't currently in office. Instead we have a orange sociopath and his gold digging wife.
“Empty and bleak like her husband’s presidency”. And our lives for the last 3 years, 7 months. Vote BLUE and we could see a light at the end of a very dark, dank, stinking tunnel.
Completely misses the point of a garden... she has made it no more than landscaping for a walkway.
Well, the fact of it being historical means you leave it the f**k alone. Maintain it, don’t level it.
Oh, she’s probably spinning her way out of her grave. Hope she haunts Melania.
Even a cemetery can look more inviting. Hell, she didn’t even put in any statuary to break up the monotony—-though I shudder to think of what kind of statues she’d pick.
I am really getting tired of entertainers bitching about homelessness and hunger in the US but will instead rally for support for other countries. Don't get me wrong, I know there are needy people across the globe. My problem is that they will point fingers at people they don't like and accuse them of not helping the problem yet they refuse to help as well. If you don't fix your backyard, you have no business fixing others' backyards.
My grandparents had a beautiful flowering dogwood tree in their front yard. They are iconic in the city where they lived (Quincy, IL). After my grandpa died, my grandma sold the house and moved to Florida. The first thing the new owners did was cut down the dogwood. This reminds me of that. They probably tore out my grandpa's roses as well. I don't know. We couldn't stand to drive by any more after that.
I have no problem with people having an opinion, but they should at least get their facts straight. The rose garden has had the so called "central lawn" since it's redesign by Rachel Lambert Mellon in 1961. So no real change there. (Just carefully and deceptively cropped photos.) Those weren't cherry trees. They were crabapples. And the sidewalks were required by the ADA, which, yes, even the White House has to follow. So in summary: same layout, old crabapples removed, federally required sidewalks installed. Grrrr, the outrage.
Still looks hideous...even with the "facts straight".....and yes, having it go from soulful, bright and full of color to....this......YES grrrrrr....the outrage is right.
Load More Replies...A lot of the comments I've read show a lack of public gardening knowledge. For example, in public gardens, tulips are treated as annuals and new bulbs are planted every year. After they're done blooming in spring, they're dug up, thrown away, and replaced with summer annuals. D.C. is warm enough to have winter annuals such as pansies and flowering kale.
Tulips grown in residential gardens last only a few seasons before they quit blooming. That is, if they survive being munched on by chipmunks and rabbits. I gave up tulips in favor of daffodils and narcissuses because they're poisonous to wildlife and they reproduce.
Load More Replies...My grandparents had a beautiful flowering dogwood tree in their front yard. They are iconic in the city where they lived (Quincy, IL). After my grandpa died, my grandma sold the house and moved to Florida. The first thing the new owners did was cut down the dogwood. This reminds me of that. They probably tore out my grandpa's roses as well. I don't know. We couldn't stand to drive by any more after that.
I have no problem with people having an opinion, but they should at least get their facts straight. The rose garden has had the so called "central lawn" since it's redesign by Rachel Lambert Mellon in 1961. So no real change there. (Just carefully and deceptively cropped photos.) Those weren't cherry trees. They were crabapples. And the sidewalks were required by the ADA, which, yes, even the White House has to follow. So in summary: same layout, old crabapples removed, federally required sidewalks installed. Grrrr, the outrage.
Still looks hideous...even with the "facts straight".....and yes, having it go from soulful, bright and full of color to....this......YES grrrrrr....the outrage is right.
Load More Replies...A lot of the comments I've read show a lack of public gardening knowledge. For example, in public gardens, tulips are treated as annuals and new bulbs are planted every year. After they're done blooming in spring, they're dug up, thrown away, and replaced with summer annuals. D.C. is warm enough to have winter annuals such as pansies and flowering kale.
Tulips grown in residential gardens last only a few seasons before they quit blooming. That is, if they survive being munched on by chipmunks and rabbits. I gave up tulips in favor of daffodils and narcissuses because they're poisonous to wildlife and they reproduce.
Load More Replies...