Spanning six administrations, former White House floral designer Nancy Clarke translated first ladies’ personal visions into state-worthy style
Clarke puts the finishing touches on a centerpiece for President George W. Bush’s first state dinner, which honored Mexican President Vicente Fox on September 5th, 2001.
There is little doubt that the American White House represents the most exciting and visible entertaining venue in the country. As such, the role of chief floral designer is creatively stimulating, extremely demanding, and sometimes daunting, even for the most talented and intrepid individual.
After 25 years in that position, Nancy Clarke describes her experiences in her new book, My First Ladies. A maestro of beauty, she has orchestrated floral tableaux under the direction of six first ladies from Rosalynn Carter to Michelle Obama. In collaboration with Christie Matheson, Clarke chronicles the adventure of creating beautiful events for wildly different personalities, as well as the unique task of helping each first lady achieve her own signature style.
Described as “Flower Czar” in a 2009 Wall Street Journal story, Clarke and her exquisite floral designs consistently brought innovation and grace to historic White House occasions including the Camp David Accords, the Russian Summit, and the NATO 50th Anniversary Summit, as well as countless glittering private and state dinners attended by entertainers, celebrities, and dignitaries that included the pope, royal families, and heads of state.
Little did she imagine that such a scintillating life would evolve from the modest flower arranging night classes she took at a local high school in the Dayton, Ohio area in 1974. “My husband was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. We had two little kids, and taking this rudimentary course was the only way I could learn the basics. I did not know how to do flowers but wanted to learn,” Clarke admits.
Fast forward to a part-time job at a local flower shop and an intensive three-week course at Hixson’s School of Floral Design in a Cleveland suburb. “While there, an instructor casually mentioned that if I ever relocated to Washington, D.C., the White House always needed volunteers to help with the flowers.” At the time, Clarke had no idea that the random remark would eventually change her life.
Guests at the November 1985 dinner for Prince Charles and Princess Diana would have never guessed that Clarke used chicken wire to reinforce the cen- terpieces—a necessary measure to hold in place more than 150 roses in each arrangement.
Four years later when her husband, Michael, was transferred to Virginia, Clarke volunteered her services with the chief floral designer at the White House. Rosalynn Carter was her first first lady. During the first three years she learned the ropes, as well as her way around the massive 132-room building. Aside from the myriad public spaces that include the State Dining Room and formal reception rooms, there are 16 rooms on the second floor and 20 rooms on the third floor of the private residence.
Depending on who is visiting and what event is scheduled, the number of daily arrangements ranges from 12 to several dozen. Slowly, Clarke learned how to deal with the powerful chief usher, social secretaries, and the first ladies themselves. Long days began when she arose at 4:20 a.m. and often continued until well after 9 p.m. By 1985, when she became the chief floral designer until her resignation at the end of May 2009, she had four assistants and 11 part-time floral arrangers on her busy team.
Nancy Reagan sometimes stopped by to speak to Clarke about centerpieces for upcoming dinners.
During the Carter years, the first lady exuded simple, understated taste, which sometimes translated into casual entertaining. Although Mrs. Carter was partial to roses and liked having them in the family quarters, events were often low-key but specifically targeted to the pleasure of the guests of honor. For instance, when the staff learned that Japan’s prime minister loved barbecues, the Carters served barbecued buffalo chicken on the terrace overlooking the Rose Garden. In the same vein, Mrs. Carter requested camellias for Prime Minister Deng Xiaoping’s state visit after she learned the flower had originated in China. Clarke’s team arranged masses of the waxy blossoms from Georgia in low containers surrounded by votive candles to create a luminous effect.
This simplicity would vanish in an instant when the glamorous Reagans swung into town. In short order, the first lady commissioned new red-and-gold Presidential dinnerware (220 place settings) and ordered Ted Graber, her decorator, to spruce up the house. Simple dogwood boughs, which once graced the Carters’ lunch for the king and queen of Belgium, were replaced by abundant arrangements of lilies, amaryllis, freesia, tulips, and hydrangeas. The Hollywood crowd visited frequently, and an elegant sophistication infused every event. State dinners were often awash in flattering pastels, but white amaryllis, freesia, and roses dominated the scheme for Gorbachev’s famous visit. When Prince Charles and Princess Diana visited, the décor was soft and feminine with peach tablecloths, ficus trees covered in tiny white lights, and huge vermeil bowls filled with hundreds of roses— including one called ‘Lady Di.’
Nancy Reagan’s personal taste in flowers centered on her beloved peonies—until Clarke’s stock answer, that “peonies only bloom in May,” became her mantra. Although purple flowers were verboten (she considered them “old lady”), she kept soft-peach roses called ‘Kyria’ and ‘Sonia’ on her dressing table and in their bedroom.
President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush pose for a photo in the State Dining Room just before welcoming Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on May 7th, 2007.
When George Bush and his witty, down-to-earth wife, Barbara, moved in, things took a distinctly lighter tone. Gone were the designer clothes; the president gave his wife 20 pairs of Keds sneakers for her birthday. Upstairs in the Family Room, Mrs. Bush liked pink and cream lilies, as well as cream or peach amaryllis that complemented the handmade needlepoint rug she made. “The first lady was a gardener and loved all flowers, including purple ones,” says Clarke, who added that she also liked to add objets d’art within arrangements that could serve as a conversation piece.
For a state dinner honoring Queen Elizabeth II, Clarke recalls using white peonies with a silvery-purple rose called ‘Purple Passion,’ which Mrs. Bush matched with a purple satin skirt and white lace top. In perfect keeping with her enthusiastic style, Mrs. Bush solicited the aid of a needlepoint group called the Saintly Stitchers from her Texas church to become involved in “A Needlework Christmas”— one of the most beloved themes ever executed at the White House.
If most first ladies gradually segue into a signature style, Clarke says Hillary Clinton was impossible to pigeonhole. Direct and decisive, the first lady’s choice of flowers varied greatly from casual, mixed bouquets to ultra-contemporary arrangements. Open to almost any idea, Clinton was involved in planning every major event. In the private residence, Old Masters were replaced by contemporary works by the likes of Willem de Kooning and Dale Chihuly.
If Mrs. Clinton’s centerpieces varied in color and flowers, “they always had to be low enough so everyone could see across the table,” Clarke says. “More than any other first family I worked with, the Clintons liked to party.” At times, their soirées ranged from one or two intimate dinners a week to big, star-studded extravaganzas with stars like Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, and Stevie Wonder. The largest event Clarke ever worked on was the NATO 50th Anniversary Summit, which concluded with an enormous dinner for 800 guests on the South Lawn. Assisted by the late event designer Robert Isabell from New York, the spectacle featured exquisite arrangements of white roses, gardenias, hydrangeas, green grapes, and white orchids. Annually, Mrs. Clinton’s zany birthday celebrations called for costumes. Once she came as a black-wigged Dolley Madison; another year, at a ‘50s party, everyone wore cat’s eye glasses and saddle shoes, and tables featured white flower poodles.
For an October 1994 state dinner honoring South African President Nelson Mandela, Clarke created an arrangement of pastel roses in vermeil containers.
In direct contrast, Laura Bush was more reserved, but she also loved to be involved in planning. With a penchant for large, Texas-sized bouquets, her taste evolved over time to edgier concepts. At her favorite state dinner, for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, tables featured wired-elephant centerpieces constructed of green button mums fitted with saddles of hot-pink floribunda roses with gold tassels and draped headpieces of hypericum berries.
As if daily White House flower needs were not enough, Clarke said planning for each monumental Christmas usually began in January with meticulous organization around an overarching theme. It continued with complicated procurement of material from artists and craftspeople until installation after Thanksgiving. Delightful themes ranged from Laura Bush’s “Presidential Pets” and “National Parks” to the 7,000 glorious angels that graced one of the Clintons’ Christmases.
More than flowers, Clarke’s book is filled with poignant examples of real-life emotions, traditions, protocol, and the universal appreciation of beauty in very public events. Recounting anecdotal details of this high-profile world, such as the fact that Laura Bush had her hair and makeup done every day at her own expense, Clarke says she will never forget doing the arrangement of red roses for the Annie Leibovitz photograph of Hillary Clinton for the cover of Vogue after the Lewinsky scandal and impeachment proceedings were over.
Clarke spent extra time on the floral décor (shown here) for the Obamas’ first formal dinner in the State Dining Room in February of 2009.
Although Clarke resigned in 2009 just as she was getting to know the Obamas, she was thrilled with the president’s remark when he greeted the residence staff several months after he assumed office: Taking Clarke’s hand, he grinned and said, “My favorite thing about living in the White House is the flowers.”
In regards to her time at the White House and her recent book coming out, Clarke says, “It was a wonderful and thoroughly memorable 31-year adventure, one that I will never forget and feel so incredibly lucky to have experienced, and I wanted to share my memories with those who love flowers, history, or little-known, behind-the-scenes secrets in the White House.”
Midst a busy book and speaking tour, Clarke is enjoying time with her husband, children, and grandchildren while doing flowers for her own home. “No more formal arrangements,” she says. “I just put water in a vase and throw in a bunch of my favorite flowers. Like Mrs. Reagan I adore peonies, and I buy them when they are in season. I like lily-of-the-valley, viburnum, blue and white hydrangeas, bright floribunda roses, and rich, summer-colored asters—pretty much anything that smells great and looks pretty.”
Of all the thousands of events and millions of flowers she choreographed, the 2007 state visit of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II remains a highlight of Clarke’s career. “We used cream and white roses and white lilacs. It was magnificent.”
