The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 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.
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 posies,
and incidentally it is proposed to
make this gardeners domain serve as
a sort Of floral setting for a private
pier that has been designed as a spe-
cial landing for the presidents yachts.
This latter statement may for the
moment mystify persons who have not
been in Washington since Theodore
Roosevelt assumed the presidency and
who remember conditions at the
White House as they were in the old
days when the Conservatives were To-
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 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 do
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
heard little on the subject, the floral
prerogatives of the president have
gradually grown in scope, until nova.
days they constitute one of his most
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 that
for cut flowers for the ornamentation
of the various rooms at the White
house and the presidential Office build.
ing. This does not mean, as might be
supposed, merely the supplying of the
thousands of blooms required for dec
orative purposes on the occasion of
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 a similar service, on a
smaller scale, every day in the year.
Every morning huge clusters of beau.
tiful flowers are placed in almost all
the different rooms at the White
House and on the desks of the presi-
dent and his secretaries at the office
building. Even when the family is alb
sent the floral offerings are in place,
just the same.
However, the greatest drain upon
this floral fountain head is found in
the tremendous quantities of flowers
which are generously given away.
President and Mrs. Roosevelt have
used flowers as gifts to an extent not
followed by any previous occupants of
the White House. To many of their
relatives and personal fria9ds they
send such sweet-scented tokeHs almost
daily, and many a sickroom has been
frightened and many a wedding dec.
Grafton enhanced, thanks to the gen.
erosity Of the occupants of the White
House.
Perhaps the best idea Of the pro
ductiveness of this special flower mart
may be formed by a peep into the
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 the
always preeminent American beauty
roses. Here the visitor can look down
a long, narrow aisle, lined on either
side by close-grown rose bushes rising
to a height Of 10 or IL feet. There are
thousands upon thousands of plants in
this one house, and 1900 bushes are
to be found in an adjoining building
devoted to the popular bridesmaid and
Golden Gate roses. Other roses. such
as the Killarney and Kaiserin, are also
extensively cultivated in these gar
dens under glass. Carnations rank
next to roses in the output Of the
White House Conservatives, and it is
nothing unusual for the presidents
gardeners to have 5000 or 1000 car
nations in full bloom at one time.