A History of White House Flowers and Florists, SOMETIMES I JUST NEED TO READ SOMETHING NICE. I love flowers and it's nice to have REAL ONES around instead of artificial ones. They smell and looks so lovely. It's wonderful that the White house has such wonderful things in it, like it's own FLOWER SHOP. How cool is that? Many people in the White House have very interesting jobs. "April showers might bring May flowers, but White House florists keep the executive mansion in bloom YEAR ROUND. Today the White House Chief Floral Designer and her staff have a flower shop in the BASEMENT of the mansion, beneath the North Portico. They create and maintain arrangements for display in the PUBLIC and PRIVATE ROOMS of the White House and design fabulous centerpieces for events of all kinds. There is hardly a table or mantel that goes unadorned—flowers have BECOME CENTRAL to the building’s décor.  Yet in the past their presence has not been a priority. In the early 19th century, Americans rarely brought flowers indoors, believing they deprived a room of oxygen and released harmful vapors into the air. Wax flowers took the place of the real thing. That belief faded, however, by the 1850s when Harriot Lane—niece and surrogate first lady for President James Buchanan introduced fresh floral arrangements to the White House. Buchanan ordered the construction of a conservatory on the west side of the White House grounds, giving his niece ready access to choice blooms. Visitors appreciated Lane’s floral flair. The New York Times reported that “bouquets of rare flowers filled the air with perfume” at an 1858 reception. The public also had access to the conservatory, where they could experience the “rare and odorous plants” that flourished under the care of head gardener John Watt. Harriet Lane’s successors followed her lead and expanded the use of flowers in the White House. President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady Julia Dent Grant entertained lavishly, employing impressive floral displays to awe their guests. When the Grants’ daughter Nellie was married from the White House in 1874, the mansion overflowed with blooms. In the East Room hung a large marriage bell made of “the choicest white flowers,” according to the Baltimore Sun. Flowered wreaths in the shape of the bride and groom’s initials hung on the walls, and “a bronze cupid… was fairly covered with rare flowers, and the columns were twined with fresh wreaths.” “Never before,” the article proclaimed, “had the East Room presented so brilliant of a display of artistic floral adornments." For the rest of the article you can read it here.  https://www.whitehousehistory.org/a-history-of-white-house-flowers-and-florists