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Central Park - Conservatory Garden

New York, New York, United States

English Garden

The Conservatory Garden in Central Park is the only formal garden in the park. The garden is open daily from 8am to dusk and is free to enter. You can enter the gardens through the Vanderbilt gate (moved here from the old Vanderbilt home) on 5th Ave at 105th St, or through entrances at the north and south end of the gardens from inside the park.

The garden consists of three formal gardens - an Italian garden, a French garden, and an English garden. The gardens are quite nice to look at and stroll through. The area is a designated quiet zone, so you can have a peaceful time here. Twice a year, the French garden is planted with new plants. In the spring, 20,000 tulips are planted. In the summer, they are replaced with Chrysanthemums. The English garden also has new plantings every year.

There are bathroom buildings in the gardens - although I didn't check what state they are in.

Tours

Italian Garden

Free tours are provided on Saturdays at 11am. The tours start just inside the entrance from 5th Ave. The tour we went on was run by one of the gardens full-time gardeners. The tour covered some of the gardens history, the styles of the gardens, and information about the plants they contain.

Most of the tour was spent talking about the plants and gardening logistics, which I found less interesting.

Estimated Visiting Time

Crab apple tree path in the garden

If you are taking a tour, the tour lasts about 90 minutes. If you are just going to explore the gardens yourself, expect to spend about 30-60 minutes.