We're in the White House Rose Garden here today
this coming weekend we have garden tours and the grounds are open to the
public and this is one of the gardens that you'll see on the tour today
this garden is surrounded with captain crab apples which is the white
blooming flowers you see behind me
and many varieties of tulips here in the Rose Garden. we have about thirty different variety
of tulips
here in the garden on display for the spring
as you're coming through the tours this weekend you see crab apple trees and you'll
see tulip magnolias and
red buds blooming
so there's this abundance of color and great color this spring for the garden
show and all the presidential and the commemorative trees are starting to leaf out
now which is always nice to see that they've made it through another winter
we have over forty commememorative trees here on the white house grounds
planted by different presidents and first ladies and the President and Mrs. Bush
have planted two trees since they've been in office
one is a cut leaf maple and the other is a little leaf lindon and both of
those are leafing out also at this time also that you'll see on the tour
right now i guess really my favorite are the tulips I mean
essentially that gives you such great color
it makes you know that spring is here and winter is over and the colors are so
vibrant
but you know they last such a short period of time but
I love tulips
Mrs. Bush seems to like it
anything that blooms or has color she just
she's really into gardening so I mean she's out here with us lots of times looking when
there's a
new variety of tulip blooming or the different violas or pansies we put in
this spring she comes out she kinda asks, is it new?
is it something we've had before?
so a lot of feedback from the First Lady
the Rose Garden's probably my favorite only because the
way the plantings are done for the seasonal planting in here are
so great and the color and
the heights and
the different annuals and perennials that come back up and the roses are
coming back in
this is always something new and exciting in the Rose Garden coming out and
so it's always fun to get out here to see what's come up since the weekend
and then also this weekend with the garden tours you'll probably see the the dogs out
here also playing around
and so as you walk into this garden you see the different handprints and
footprints of different grandchildren of the presidents
and we have a pond over here which has goldfish in in the summertime and
of course Barney loves to come down here and watch the goldfish swim around so if you
can't find Barney during the day, he's down here watching the goldfish
the children's garden was established during the end of the Johnson
administration the crest is in 1968
the President and Mrs. Johnson dedicated this garden to all future grandchildren of presidents.
at the present time we have handprints and footprints of the Carter's
grandchildren
the Bushes
grandchildren
of course the Johnson's grandchildren
the garden tours date back to 1972 when Pat Nixon first opened
the gates to the public
since then the White House hosts two annual events each year, the spring
garden tour and the fall garden tour
this year's spring garden tour will be held on two dates, Saturday April 23rd
from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm and Sunday April 24th from noon
until 4:00 pm
the National Park Service will distribute free tickets on both tour
dates beginning at 7:30 am am from the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion located at
the corner of 15th and E streets
all people will need tickets in order to enter the south lawn
during the tour visitors will be able to see the East Garden the Rose Garden and
the Children's Garden as well as the commemorative tree plantings which date
back to 1876 with President Hayes' first planting
also the Marine Corps Band will be entertaining all visitors from the South Lawn. We hope
you'll be able to join us for this annual tradition on the south lawn
grounds