The Garden at Newfields
Enjoy 52 acres of horticulture in The Garden at Newfields. Spring blooms, summer color, fall foliage, and frost covered evergreens – there’s something to see all year. Made up of our living collection and seasonal displays, this Indianapolis oasis is sure to delight the senses. With half of its footprint made up of Oldfields (a National Historic Landmark estate), there are many winding paths and interesting spaces to explore.
Wood Formal Garden
Cleverly sited as an extension of the house, the Wood Formal Garden has been part of the Oldfields estate since its inception. It was designed by the architect of the house, Lewis Ketcham Davis, when the home was built for the Landon family in 1913 and remained largely untouched during Percival Gallagher’s 1920s reimagining of the estate.
The low wall surrounding the space, symmetrical layout, and tightly trimmed hedges create structure that holds in brightly colored perennials and roses. White arbors mark the center of each side, framing a fountain.
Possibly its most romanticized use was as the site of the Landon sisters’ double wedding. Alice and Margaret married their husbands on June 2, 1920. The double wedding used this pathway, covered in white fabric, as its aisle to create a dramatic entrance for the young women. The areas directly surrounding the Formal Garden and Lilly House are popular spots for wedding ceremonies today as well.
The Wood Formal Garden is a colorful, intimate space to explore, filled with both seasonal and perennials plantings.
Rapp Ravine Garden
Adjacent to the Central Canal is the Rapp Ravine Garden. The first garden designed by Percival Gallagher for the Landon family, its rambling path embraces the topography of the site by using a series of stairs and a wooden bridge to navigate the hillside.
A stream and three pools run through the garden space, alluding to Hugh Landon’s association with the Indianapolis Water Company. The plantings were chosen to crescendo with blooms in spring and with foliage in autumn, since the Landons, like most wealthy estate owners, spent their summers in cooler climates.
Of all the garden spaces in Oldfields, the Ravine has remained truest to its original plan. It was restored in 1999 as faithfully as modern plant availability and ecological stewardship allowed. This garden really celebrates the transition seasons, shining brightest in spring and fall.
The Rapp Ravine Garden can be enjoyed by traversing its steps and hilly pathways, viewed from above at the back of the Lilly House.
The Gene & Rosemary Tanner Orchard
On many estates like Oldfields it was common to have orchards, vegetable gardens, and some animals for additional food supplies. In the early 20th century, this property would have been well outside the city limits, making quick shopping trips relatively inconvenient. The food grown on the estate would not have been enough to fully sustain the family and its employees, but enough could be raised so that fresh produce could be enjoyed throughout the growing season.
Apples, brambles, greens, beans and peas, root vegetables, tomatoes, flowers for display in the home, and numerous other fresh treats were likely grown and stored in the root cellar to support the house and its staff. Mrs. Lilly was even known to have her chauffeur drive her to friends throughout the city to deliver flowers from the Oldfields cutting garden.
This orchard started as a small collection of trees at the beginning of the Landon family’s time here but was redesigned by Percival Gallagher to prominently feature an allée of apples, creating an idealized image of a commercial farm in miniature.
This line of apple trees has long had a collection of perennial plantings underneath, and the space has changed its use over time. With the promise of re-creating a space for cut flowers and vegetables near the greenhouses, Newfields’ horticulturists have redesigned the space into a romantic meadow with pops of bright flowers throughout the seasons.
Explore the meandering paths, notice what stage the trees are in their production of fruit or take a moment to sit under the Orchard Folly and watch the birds and pollinators interact with the space.
The Allée
The designer of the Oldfields gardens, Percival Gallagher, worked for the Olmsted Brothers firm based in Brookline, Massachusetts. This famous firm is responsible for some of the most iconic built landscapes in North America, including Central Park in New York City, the Seattle Park System, and Balboa Park in San Diego.
A common thread among most Olmsted Firm designs is the juxtaposition of formal and informal spaces. This Allée is the backbone of Oldfields—the heart of the estate. Surrounded on either side by sweeping shade trees, this long vista of grass appears uninterrupted because of a simple trick of the eye and clever construction. A road, set at a slightly lower elevation than the lawn, runs right through the middle of it, but you would never know when looking across from either end.
In spring, this central feature has a meandering river of bulbs running through it and the open garden space behind the large fountain provides the grandest view of the house on the property year-round.
Border Gardens
Adjacent to the Allée, the Border Gardens were planted as an informal foil to a structured space. At the time of their creation in 1922, small evergreen trees were planted to create private spaces along its pathways.
In the century since, those small trees have become towering features that cast shade over the Border Gardens, sometimes letting beams of light filter through. The site has gone from hot, full sun to a much cooler woodland feel. Newfields’ gardeners have maintained the original design intention to create intimate nooks for contemplation or quiet conversation, but the plant palette has had to change significantly over the years. Today these garden spaces feature mostly shade plantings focused on texture, structure, and pops of color sprinkled throughout.
Dickinson Four Seasons Garden
Named for the four putti statues representing each of the four seasons, this garden was designed by the firm of Haldeman and Leland during the Lilly family’s residency. Anne Bruce Haldeman and Louise Leland were two of the earliest female landscape architects in Kentucky.
This space directly adjacent to the Playhouse, the Lilly’s recreation building built in 1940, was originally created as a monochromatic green garden, which was very popular in landscape design at the time. Nestled among evergreen hedges rather than bright flowers, this garden emphasized form, texture, and seasonal change.
Over the decades, much more color has been added to the plantings, but the structured room-like feel remains.
Garden for Everyone
Designed for all people, regardless of physical limitations, this garden is a welcome respite for everyone. The plantings are selected and presented to create a multisensory experience. Guests will find fragrance and texture in the garden from February through November. A bronze sculpture, LaHermana del Hombre Boveda (Sister of the Vault Man) sits in the center of the garden with a softly flowing fountain underneath. The inscription from Antoine de Saint Exupery says, “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Supported through the Frank C. and Irving Moxley Springer Garden and Horticulture Funds
Nonie’s Garden
This circular garden bed in front of the Museum’s Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion was dedicated in honor of Nonie (Eleanor) Krauss in the spring of 2008. Nonie, the late wife of John Krauss, was very involved at the IMA and loved nature, bird watching and gardening. A generous gift from Nonie’s husband, along with her friends and family, allowed Newfields to convert a space that was covered in mulch half of the year into a fully planted, year-round garden.
Each year, major elements of the garden change with each passing season, but a group of seven sweetgum trees remain constant. These narrow upright trees (Liquidambar styraciflua ‘Slender Silhouette’) contrast with the broad horizontal lines of the Efroymson Family Entrance Pavilion while bright seasonal displays give a bold welcome to The Garden at Newfields.
"Here marks the passage between art and nature, nature and art, for in reality, they are one." – Nonie’s Garden plaque inscription
Sutphin Mall
The geometric beds of the Mall contrast beautifully with the curvy, relaxed and mingled plantings of the nearby overlook, and the large blocks of a single species give the illusion that the Mall is longer than its 300 feet. The permanent plantings were chosen for their multiple seasonal interests, as all of the selections contribute something to the malls beauty at least 2 seasons of the year.
Sutphin Fountain
Centered in the front of the IMA’s main façade, Sutphin Mall and Fountain have been an Indianapolis landmark for over 30 years. Around the fountain are 17 large concrete planters filled with colorful foliage and flowering plants from April to October. A large, curved bed in front of the fountain is filled with changing seasonal displays in spring and summer.
