Mount Vernon Botanical Garden (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this trailside historical marker:

Botanical Garden
"The most valuable and scarcer kinds of plants…may receive nourishment in my little garden."
George Washington, letter to manager Anthony Whitting, November 25, 1792

Washington often tended this experimental garden with his own hands. Unfamiliar or exotic plants would be tested here. Washington observed the first sproutings, recorded the cuttings which took hold, and noted the plants that might thrive when transplanted in his fields or groves. Sees were collected from varieties that flourished. Many of the plants grown in this plot today are mentioned in Washington's writings.