{"id":287,"date":"2012-01-18T22:43:20","date_gmt":"2012-01-18T22:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fifeanddrumpress.com\/blog\/?p=287"},"modified":"2018-04-16T13:22:37","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T18:22:37","slug":"white-house-chief-floral-designers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/white-house-chief-floral-designers\/","title":{"rendered":"White House Chief Floral Designers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s White House floral designer Laura Dowling was just recently acclaimed in this month’s Veranda (January-February 2012 issue) stating that her “lush and irreverent arrangements capture the wild romance of the garden”. \u00a0Her arrangements have been called more relaxed, natural and modern. Dowling studied the art of arrangement in Paris and operated her own shop, Interieurs et Fleurs, in the D.C. area. You can see more of the White House’s chief floral designer from her website and blog\u00a0http:\/\/www.lauradowling.com\/<\/a>.\u00a0 The White House chief floral designer has a difficult job, as this individual\u00a0is responsible for the planning, design, arrangement and placement of all floral decorations for the First Family, their private entertaining, and official state functions at the White House, the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Here you can see one of her\u00a0floral arrangements, for the State Visit honoring Mexico, which sat in a hallway in the Residence of the White House, May 19, 2010.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A contractor works on floral arrangements for the State Dinner honoring President Felipe Calder\u00f3n of Mexico and his wife, Mrs. Margarita Zavala, in the East Tradesman Entrance of the White House, May 19, 2010<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

White House Chief Floral Designer Laura Dowling arranges a bouquet in the Vermeil Room of the White House, Dec. 1, 2010.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Guests attend the State Dinner honoring President Hu Jintao of China in State Dining Room of the White House, Jan. 19, 2011.<\/p>\n

Over the weekend the White House and all of it’s current and past occupants were saddened to hear the news of the passing of former White House chief florist Nancy Clarke. \u00a0\u00a0Nancy Clarke’s floral designs graced the rooms of the Executive Mansion for 31 years, from the Carter to the Obama\u00a0Administration.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In 1978, Nancy Clarke became a volunteer floral designer working side-by-side with the permanent staff to decorate the Executive Residence.\u00a0 At the beginning of the Reagan Administration, in 1981, she became a full-time member of the White House Flower Shop staff\u00a0under White House chief florist Dottie Temple\u00a0.\u00a0 In 1985, at the beginning the second term of President Reagan, following the retirement of Temple, she was hired as the White House Chief Floral Designer, a position she held until retiring on May 31, 2009. \u00a0For thirty-one years, she designed everything from simple bud vases to elaborate and formal State Dinners, coordinated and created all decor from the Christmas celebrations to the annual Easter Egg Roll. Nancy and all of her talent will be very missed – our hearts and prayers go out to her and her family.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nancy Clarke did the flowers for this dinner in February of 2009, before she left the White House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s White House floral designer Laura Dowling was just recently acclaimed in this month’s Veranda (January-February 2012 issue) stating that her “lush and irreverent arrangements capture the wild romance of the garden”. \u00a0Her arrangements have been called more relaxed, natural and modern. Dowling studied the art of arrangement in Paris and operated her own shop,… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-white-house-wednesdays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/303"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jenniferpickens.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}