Conservatory Garden

The Conservatory Garden is divided into three smaller gardens, each with a distinct style: Italian, French and English. The Garden's main entrance is through the Vanderbilt Gate, on Fifth Avenue between 104th and 105th Streets. This magnificent iron gate, made in Paris in 1894, originally stood before the Vanderbilt mansion at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street.

Wide stairs lead down to the Italianate Center Garden. The large lawn is surrounded by yew hedges and is bordered by two exquisite allées of spring-blooming pink and white crabapple trees. A 12-foot high jet fountain plays on the western end of the lawn, backed by tiered hedges and stairs that lead up to a pergola covered in wisteria. On the walkway under the pergola are medallions inscribed with the names of the original 13 states.

The northern, French-style garden showcases parterres of germander and spectacular seasonal displays of spring tulips, and Korean chrysanthemums in autumn, all within an ellipse of Japanese holly. In the center is the charming "Three Dancing Maidens" fountain by German sculptor, Walter Schott, which once stood at the home of Samuel Untermyer's estate, Greystone, in the Bronx.

To the south is the very intimate English-style garden. At the center is sculptor Bessie Potter Vonnah's lovely Burnett memorial fountain, a tribute to Frances Hodgson Burnett, the author of the children's classic, The Secret Garden. The children — a girl and a boy, thought to depict Mary and Dickon — stand at one end of a small water lily pool. Concentric rings of flower beds surround the pool. There are five mixed borders of trees, shrubs and perennial plants, and five seasonal beds featuring spring bulbs that are followed by annual flower displays. A slope of woodland plants lines the western edge of this garden.

The Conservatory Garden is an officially designated Quiet Zone and offers a calm and colorful setting for a leisurely stroll, and intimate wedding, or an escape with a good book.