It's great to be able to move these big trees in with nothing else around. They are all handpicked ... the 'Cadillac' of trees.

The cherry tree myth is just that. When I do lectures I bring an old hatchet and say we just found this under an old cherry tree we had to take down. George Washington loved cherry trees. He put in a Cherry Walk of espaliered cherries in the Upper Garden. He did some pruning but not with a hatchet.

If you can imagine encountering George Washington on the grounds, it would be in the Botanical Garden on his knees with his hands in the dirt. He tried many new plants in this small space and recorded things in detail. But not everything he grew here was new and experimental. He grew sugar beets, grasses, peppers, oaks, pecans, Lombardy poplars and chinaberry.

These trees are vital to our overall landscaping plan, so it is important to choose species that are historically accurate.

I don't flatter myself - I'm not a scientist, I'm not a conservation expert.

Forty freaked me out. I didn't see it coming. My life was in a state of chaos - I was moving jobs and moving house - and it just hit me like a ton of bricks.