Michael Beschloss is still none to happy about the Rose Garden:

[demmiblue]

Evisceration of White House Rose Garden was completed a year ago this month, and here was the grim result—decades of American history made to disappear:

Link to tweet

Angry Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) eviscerates garden, in “Mommie Dearest” (1981):

“Tina, bring me the axe!"

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[Champp]

1. Melania truly has the merde* touch

[Marcuse]

2. She didn't care.

[Rorey]

3. I despise her as much as I do her yucky husband

It still just turns my stomach to know that she was in our White House.

[FakeNoose]

4. We keep blaming Melania for this travesty, but did she really do it?

It boggles my mind that Melania would have destroyed the Rose Garden out of spite. That's more like something her hubby would have done. Maybe he got stung by a bee, and he decided he didn't want any more roses out there. I don't know.

Seems like Melania spent so little time at the White House anyway. When she was there, she rarely went outside. I think the spike high heels made it tough to walk around on dirt.

[maryellen99]

9. Read the book Melania and Me by Stephanie Winston Wolkoff

Melania is just as bad or as worse as Trump is.

[WarGamer]

14. there's more to the story, of course

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-melania-rosegarden/fact-check-melania-trumps-rose-garden-redesign-did-not-remove-rose-bushes-from-all-first-ladies-since-1913-idUSKBN25O225

Regarding the crab apple trees, page 75 of the Landscape report (here) shows that the ten original Katherine crab apples (Malus ‘Katherine’), pictured lined up in rows in the viral social media posts, were planted in the 1962 Kennedy redesign of the Rose Garden. However, it states that all these trees had been replaced two or three times by the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations in 2003, 2010, 2016 and 2019. The document states, “This is all in keeping with the life of gardens, in which a design is retained while plant materials are renewed”.



https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/the-full-story-behind-the-controversial-rose-garden-redesign

The work was carried out by Oehme, van Sweden and Associates and Perry Guillot Inc., two award-winning American firms, under the direction of the 14-member Committee for the Preservation of the White House and the three-member Committee for the Preservation of the White House Grounds, plus 10 external advisers. That’s a lot of expert cooks in the kitchen, among them the grounds committee’s Leslie Greene Bowman, the president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation; Richard C. Nylander, the curator emeritus of Historic New England; and Thammanoune Kannalikham, the low-profile White House interior designer.

[crickets]

16. The Architectural Digest article is especially interesting - thanks, WarGamer.

I do wish they had replaced the crab apple trees. The insipid pastel roses wouldn't be such a blow if the crabapples were still there. They were so lovely, and the garden is bare and flat without them.

eta - also, the walkway (which I think was a good idea for accessibility reasons) wouldn't be such an eyesore if they'd chosen prettier stone.

[WarGamer]

17. I think it's awesome that the WH professionals saved the Crab Apple trees

It's easy to think of Trump and wife as the sole bastions of power in the WH but there are teams of professionals defending and protecting the institutions and grounds.

Right now those trees are in the WH nursery waiting to be replanted somewhere on WH grounds.

[electric_blue68]

5. I know Joe's got more than a plateful to deal with but hopefully he's asked ...

some permanent WH staffers either...

• bring back the trees they took away and repanted elsewhere though that might be too traumatic for them
•plant new trees ❤️🌳🌳🌳

[Golden Raisin]

6. I'm NOT complaining and maybe I missed something

but it's as if Melania has fallen off the face of the Earth. Not a peep out of her or a view of her. Again, NOT complaining and do not miss her.

[keithbvadu2]

11. Now, what is her pool boy's name again?

Now, what is her pool boy's name again?

[FreepFryer]

8. She did damage to her domain as they all tried to do. And she was particularly good at it. nt

[Crataegus]

10. Looks like Gorky Park

https://imgur.com/a/5UMp7lY

[edhopper]

12. She removed Jackie's Cherry Trees,

she can burn in hell. Her tenure as First Lady will be as big a black stain as her viol husband's.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

13. Dr. Jill Biden needs to undo the damage done by the former sex worker

[11 Bravo]

15. The First Escort wanted to ensure a good camera angle.

Before long she'll have TFG photoshopped out of the picture and use it to advertise for new "customers".

[Poiuyt]

18. Has anyone heard if there are plans to redo the rose garden?

Start from scratch?