Floral designer to share stories of her time with six first ladies
Nancy Clarke rarely said “no” to the first lady of the land, but she told Nancy Reagan that her favorite flowers, peonies, only bloom in the spring so many times it became a private joke between the two of them.
Clarke, who worked with the flowers at the White House for 31 years, needlepointed a pillow as a departing gift for Mrs. Reagan that said, “Peonies bloom in May.”
The recently retired chief floral designer will speak and sign her book, ”My First Ladies” (Sellers Publishing, $21.95), on behalf of the Garden Clubs of Illinois Oct. 22 in Northfield.
The event will concentrate on Christmas, which is a big deal when you're talking about decorating the White House, but the book covers many seasons. It tells how a (very well organized) wife and mother worked with each first lady, occasionally chatted with presidents and met royalty and celebrities from around the world.
Of course, she was working long and hard the whole time, but Clarke said in a recent phone interview that she loved every minute.
“There were days when I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, what am I doing here?' There's a certain magnetism to the White House.
“The White House is a museum, and having fresh flowers or plants around is decorative, and they warm up the space. It feels more comfortable rather than so museumlike.”
Thrift is always an issue, even in the White House, and Clarke said using flowers in season is important. Many flowers are donated.
After decades of attention to every detail, Clarke's flower-arranging style these days is casual or informal: “I take some kind of clear glass container and plop the flowers in it.”
The adventure started when Clarke volunteered during Rosalynn Carter's term; then was hired at about the time Nancy Reagan came to Washington and became chief floral designer halfway through the Reagans' eight years. During this time she worked with Barbara and Laura Bush, Hillary Clinton and briefly with Michelle Obama.
The Peoria native, who always loved flowers and plants, studied at Hixson's School of Design in Cleveland when she and her husband and two children were living in Dayton. It was Bill Hixson who noticed her ability with big, festive arrangements, the type needed in the huge rooms at the White House. He told Clarke if she was ever living in that area she should volunteer. A year later her husband got a job in Washington, and the odyssey began.
We think of flower arranging as a cheerful, fun, artistic activity, but the perfection required at the White House seems stressful and the hours very long. Female staffers did all this in skirts and dresses until they were finally allowed to wear pants during the Clinton era of the 1990s.
While Clarke did not write a tell-all book and was careful not to say anything hurtful, she did include some personal anecdotes about the first ladies and presidents.
Nancy Reagan is so particular that the staff “had to use a soft brush to remove any pollen that fell on the petals of white lilies — she insisted on lilies with stamens still attached because she thought they looked more natural.”
But Clarke said that working for Mrs. Reagan was not at all difficult because “she knew what she wanted, and that made things very easy.”
Here are a few of the flower sagas related in the book:
ŸPrincess Diana was one of the most celebrated women in the world. When she and Prince Charles came to the Reagan White House, the staff used chicken wire to hold 150 roses in the centerpiece at each table. They were Nancy Reagan's favorites: the peach Kyria and the slightly darker Sonia, along with another peach rose, the Lady Di.
ŸFor Queen Elizabeth, Barbara Bush wore white and dark lavender, so she wanted white peonies with a silvery purple rose called Purple Passion. But Clarke thought the finished arrangements were a little bland and added pink roses with the approval of Mrs. Bush's social secretary. “The next day Mrs. Bush told me that she was ‘surprised' to see the roses but nevertheless, she thought the centerpieces looked beautiful.” Clarke never changed a centerpiece again without checking with the first lady.
ŸOne Christmas Clarke designed a three-dimensional Raggedy Ann that Barbara Bush needlepointed herself. White House staff members pitched in making ornaments for the needlework Christmas, along with the “Saintly Stitchers,” a group from the Bushes' church in Texas.
ŸFrom samples Clarke presented, Hillary Clinton chose an arrangement of hot pink, red and white tulips for her first governor's dinner, but said she would like it better softened. Clarke immediately added phlox, and they both preferred it that way.
ŸAngels were the theme for Mrs. Clinton's first Christmas, and artists from around the country sent almost 7,000 ornaments.
ŸOne of Clarke's most beautiful dinner décors was for a NATO heads of state dinner during the Clinton years. The tablecloth was pale green damask, set with the Truman china with a gold band around a wider green band and a gilded eagle in the center. The flowers were white roses, white hydrangea, gardenias, green grapes and white orchids.
ŸLaura Bush liked “big, full, yet simple arrangements that featured just a single type of flower, or were monochromatic.”
ŸDuring her first months in the White House, Michelle Obama was more laid-back about dinner style than other first ladies and seemed more focused on helping her daughters adjust. When it was time to prepare for the Obamas' first February governor's dinner, Mrs. Obama she chose pale green linen tablecloths, vermeil pedestals and wine coolers for flower containers, and an arrangement of purple and red tulips, red roses, purple calla lilies and red Mokara orchids.
And here are more personal stories about the first ladies, most of whom often worked from a desk in the White House beauty salon with its great views of the North Grounds and Pennsylvania Avenue.
ŸJust before guests arrived for a small dinner, Clarke was tweaking the flowers when Nancy Reagan made one of her customary last-minute checks. She saw Clarke there alone and blurted out, “‘Nancy, I have breast cancer' and burst into tears. Her emotional admission got to me, and I started crying, too. ‘Oh, Mrs. Reagan, I am so sorry,' I said, and we hugged. ‘It's going to be all right,' she replied.”
ŸAlthough Barbara Bush was surprised that she had to start thinking about Christmas decorations her first February in the White House, she sounds like one of the most fun first ladies to work with. Once when her husband was vice president and the couple was at the White House early for a dinner, they helped the staff put out the flames when the freesia tips on almost every table caught fire from the candles.
ŸClarke once came upon Hillary Clinton streaking stark naked from the bathroom to her bedroom.”When I ran into her later that afternoon (she was fully clothed this time!), we both laughed about it. She said it was like living in her sorority house again.”
ŸClarke got to travel on Air Force One to work on Jenna Bush's wedding in Texas, and devotes several pages to the event. The centerpieces — “a mix of high globe-shaped topiaries and low arrangements, placed in such a way that the view to the head table was never blocked — were made of lavender and white campanula, purple clematis, blue and green hydrangeas, white lisianthus, white roses and camellia foliage. It was a beautiful combination of garden flowers.”
ŸOn Sept. 12, 2001, Laura Bush asked that flowers meant for centerpieces for a congressional picnic be put into hundreds of small arrangements to be taken to hospitals for those injured in the attack.
If you go
<b>What:</b>Lecture, book and magazine signing by Nancy Clarke, retired chief floral designer at the White House
<b>When: </b>Saturday, Oct. 22; noon, book signing; 1 p.m., lecture
<b>Where: </b>Christian Heritage Academy, 315 Waukegan Road, Northfield
<b>Tickets:</b> $35; does not include book. Book and magazine can be purchased in advance.
<b>Email: </b>whitehousechristmas@gmail.com
<b>Call: </b>(630) 820-6994
Visit: Garden Clubs of Illinois, <a href="gci.esiteasp.com/garden_glories/news.htm">gci.esiteasp.com/garden_glories/news.htm</a>