Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1907-10-17
FLOWERS IN PLENTY
PROVIDED BY THE GOVERNMENT
FOR THE PRESIDENT.
Extensive Greenhouses Attached to the
White House Are Taxed to Their
Capacity to Provide the
Blooms Required.

Blooms Required.
Some extensive and very important
improvements are planned for that
unique government institution known
as the presidents hothouses, says
Walden Fawcett in the New Orleans
Picayune. New buildings are to re
place several of the old greenhouses
that are now too small to accommo
date their required quota OF posles
and incidentally it is proposed tc
make this gardeners domain serve as
a sort of floral setting for private
pier that has been designed as spe
cial landing for the presidents yachts
This latter statement may for the
moment mystify persons who have moi
been in Washington since Theodore
Roosevelt assumed the presidency and
who remember conditions at the
White House as they were In the ole
days when the Conservatives were 10
Gated directly adjoining the executive
mansion. However, the Reconstruction
of the presidential mansion as planned
several years ago made it necessary
to remove the Conservatives from the
old site, and now these flower palaces
vastly enlarged in order to meet the
demands of more extensive entertain
ing at the White House, are located
some distance south Of the White
House, almost on the banks of the Pc
tomac river.
Present conditions, therefore, make
something of a contrast to those Of
years gone by when mistresses of the
White House could step direct from
the drawing room to the floral bower
but for all that the greenhouses are
now fully quarter of mile from the
White House, the president and Mrs
Roosevelt make frequent visits, as dc
also their children, to the floral estab
lishment maintained for their especial
benefit Often the first lady of the
land will personally select the clusters
of blooms that she sends to her per
sonal friends. Just here it may be
noted that, for all that the public has
nCdIo 1LLLlc Ou LlIC SuDJCSL1 IAC AAOA O.
prerogatives of the president have
gradually grown in scope, until nova
days they constitute one OF his mos
important perquisites. The total flow
er trade of many small city might be
supplied from the floral harvest Of the
White House Conservatives. Fore
most among the demands upon the
flower shop which Uncle Sam main
tains for his best-paid servant is tha
for cut flowers for the ornamentatio1
of the various rooms at the White
house and the presidential office build
ing This does not mean, as might b.
supposed merely the supplying of the
thousands of blooms required for dec
orative purposes on the occasion O
every reception or dinner at the White
House. That would be responsibility
enough for the average florist, but the
presidents flower growers must in ad
dition perform similar service, on {
smaller scale, every day in the year
Every morning AGge clusters of beau
tiful flowers are placed in almost al
the different rooms at the White
House and on the desks of the presi
dent and his secretaries at the Office
sent the floral offerings are in place
just the same.
However, the greatest drain upol
this floral fountain head is found il
the tremendous quantities of flowers
which are generously given away
President and Mrs. Roosevelt have
used flowers as gifts to an extent no
followed by any previous occupants O
the White House. To many Of thei
relatives and personal friends the!
send such sweet-scented tokens almos
daily, and many sickroom has beer
frightened and many a wedding dec
Grafton enhanced, thanks to the gen
crosby of the occupants Of the White
House.
Perhaps the best idea of the pro
ductiveness of this special flower mar
may be formed by peep into thu
rosehouses, upon which heavy de
mands are made almost constantly
The most spectacular part of the dis
play is to be seen in the great glass
structure given over exclusively to thu
always preeminent American beaut!
roses. Here the visitor can look dowl
a long, narrow aisle, lined on eithe
side by close-grown rose bushes rising
to a height of 10 or II feet. There art
thousands upon thousands of plants il
this one house, and 1,500 bushes arr
to be found in an adjoining building
devoted to the popular bridesmaid ant
| Golden Gate roses. Other roses, sucl
as the Killarney and Kaiserin, are alst
extensively cultivated in these gar
dens under glass. Carnations ranl
next to roses in the output of thu
| White House Conservatives, and it il
nothing unusual for the president
gardeners to have 5000 or 1000 car
nations in full bloom at one time.
| Minic%ango Lnnoc