Mount Vernon

P.O. Box 110

Mount Vernon, VA  22121

703-780-2000

George Washington’s property, Mount Vernon, on the banks of the Potomac River, stands as one of America’s most beautiful historic sites. Washington’s work there as a farmer and gardener remains a sterling example of the ornamental farms he and his contemporaries strove to create. He designed the carriage entrance to the house as a serpentine drive that surrounded a large open lawn, or bowling green. It is the central landscape feature on the south side of the house. He envisioned shrubberies along the edges of the drive and under a canopy of trees. The Garden Club of Virginia preserved the existing canopy and added an understory of native shrubs according to his concept. These plantings were selected from those plants known to have been cultivated by George Washington. He was, in fact, fond of transplanting onto his manicured grounds the trees and shrubs he found growing wild in the woods.