Back home again in Indiana, Kay and I visited Newfields (AKA the Indianapolis Museum of Art) grounds (just talking grounds here— we’re not getting into the Art Museum and its collection) which is, interestingly, the closest thing we have in this area to a botanical garden. While there are incredible, talented and delightful horticulturists on staff, this is a garden that is first and foremost an art museum. The gardens are beautiful and there’s much to love but the intensity (#s of species) is not what you’ll find at places where plants are the only priority. The greenhouses are now display-only (you used to find really unusual plants for sale there) and a beer garden (with many botanical wonders to amaze you over a cold one). I am pleased to hear the latest 30 year plan for the gardens includes revamping the ravine garden, improving accessibility, and continuing to focus on horticulture. Don’t miss the tropical plantings at the entry, the tapestries of foliage, the plants that decorate the beer garden and the Garden for Everyone. And some wine on the patio!
Want to take some classes? I kept looking under “Educate & Learn” and finding nothing– instead, you’ll find them under “Do & See.”
Tropical plantings around the art museum are always spectacular 
The beer garden is chock-full of cool plants 
Your companions in the beer garden! 
Return during the holidays to see Winterlights featuring over one million lights!
