Were any original plantings or specimen trees from Jacqueline Kennedy's Rose Garden preserved during Melania Trump's 2020 redesign?
Executive summary
Available reporting says Melania Trump’s 2020 Rose Garden renovation removed or relocated many Kennedy-era plantings — including most historic roses and roughly a dozen crabapple trees — but some elements linked to the Mellon/Kennedy redesign were described as surviving or being replanted elsewhere on the White House grounds (see NPR, Wikipedia, Town & Country, White House Historical Association) [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. What the Kennedy/Mellon planting legacy was
The Rose Garden as most people remember it reflects Rachel “Bunny” Mellon’s 1961–62 redesign for Jacqueline Kennedy: a formal central lawn edged by flower beds, pale-pink ’Katherine’ crabapples and Littleleaf lindens, boxwood or thyme borders, and mixed rose plantings interspersed with bulbs and annuals — a look intended to balance ceremony and family use [2] [3] [5].
2. What Melania Trump’s 2020 project changed, according to reporting
Multiple accounts describe a major renovation in 2020 overseen by First Lady Melania Trump that substantially altered the Rose Garden’s lawn and beds: grass was replaced with stone or paving in the center and the planting layout was simplified into a more symmetric, muted palette with new hardscape and pathways [2] [6] [7] [1].
3. Which original plantings were explicitly reported removed or relocated
Reporting specifies that about a dozen crabapple trees added during the Kennedy redesign were removed in the Trump renovation and were reported as “relocated elsewhere on the White House grounds” rather than destroyed [2] [7]. NPR reported that only 12 of the original rose bushes remained by 2020 and that large magnolia trees and dozens of rose bushes that characterized earlier eras had suffered and were part of the changes [1].
4. Claims that the Kennedy garden was “destroyed” versus nuanced reporting
Some commentary and later articles framed the project as a loss of Kennedy’s garden — examples include strong-worded accounts that say the Rose Garden was “paved over” or “gone” [4] [8]. Other coverage notes specific plant removals and relocations rather than simple destruction, and notes that administrations traditionally alter plantings over time [2] [3] [1].
5. Conflicting details and limits of available sources
Sources disagree on tone and emphasis: fact-based reporting lists which trees or roses were removed or moved [2] [7] [1]; opinion and magazine pieces use evocative language (“poured concrete,” “Mar‑a‑Lago style”) and describe cultural loss [8] [6]. Available sources do not provide a full, itemized inventory of every specimen (what was kept in place vs. replanted) nor do they provide a contemporaneous, official botanist’s report cataloging each original Kennedy specimen’s fate — that level of detail is not found in current reporting [2] [1] [3].
6. What reputable institutional sources say
The White House Historical Association and National Park Service material trace the garden’s Mellon-era design and note subsequent stewardship and changes across administrations; they confirm Mellon’s influence and that Kennedy-era plantings (crabapples, mixed roses, bulbs) formed the historic template, but they do not assert every original specimen survived into 2020 [3] [9].
7. How to reconcile the narratives
The most defensible reading of available reporting: Melania Trump’s 2020 project substantially altered the Rose Garden’s appearance and hardscape; several Kennedy-era trees and roses were removed or were reported to be relocated elsewhere on the grounds (not all were simply “left in place”). Strong assertions that every original specimen was destroyed are not supported by the fact-based accounts that document relocation and note the prior decline of some historic plants [2] [7] [1].
8. Takeaway and what remains unclear
Answer to your question: yes — many original or long-standing Kennedy-era plantings were removed or relocated during the 2020 redesign; reporting documents removal/relocation of crabapple trees and the replacement of much lawn and bed planting [2] [7] [1]. What is not fully documented in the sources provided is a definitive list of which individual specimen trees or roses remained untouched in place versus which were moved or replaced — available sources do not mention a complete specimen-by-specimen inventory [2] [3] [1].
Sources cited: Wikipedia and feature reporting on the Rose Garden history and Trump renovation [2] [3] [1], magazine and news coverage documenting design changes and public reaction [4] [6] [7] [8].