White House Chief Floral Designer

The White House chief floral designer is 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.

The chief floral designer leads a staff of four assistant designers and works with the first lady, chief usher, and White House social secretary to plan arrangements and decorations for state dinners, receptions, and day-to-day placement throughout the ceremonial rooms and Executive Residence.

With the advent of plane transportation, flowers began to arrive from distant destinations: Florida, Colorado for First Lady Mamie Eisenhower's favored pink carnations, and southern California.

Until the administration of John F. Kennedy, floral arrangements at the White House had been extremely formal in style.

Guided by advice from her horticulturalist friend Rachel Lambert Mellon, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy began to use looser and more informal arrangements, many based upon 16th-century Flemish floral and fruit still lifes.

White House chief florist Nancy Clarke completes an arrangement of white lilies, white roses, hydrangeas, and limes before a dinner in the State Dining Room .
Assistant White House floral designer Wendy Elsasser adds final touches to a holiday cranberry topiary in the Red Room of the White House. The cranberry topiary is now a 20-year-plus tradition and is placed on the room's guéridon designed by cabinetmaker Charles-Honoré Lannuier c. 1810.
Conservatories covered the West Colonnade and site of the current West Wing in the 19th century.