Children's Garden

Garden Design

Entering through a kid-sized blue door and passing under a tunnel of roses, children find themselves in an imaginative landscape that invites them to observe, touch, and explore the four key elements of nature: earth, air, light, and water. The garden’s interactive sculptures, engaging plants, water features, and other playful elements create an enchanting environment where kids can disappear into a swirling bank of fog, catch water in a whirlpool, explore a tunnel illuminated by prism-diffracted sunlight, or feel the pull of the earth’s magnetic energy with a handful of iron particles found in ordinary beach sand. 

It’s a magical space at a scale appropriate for young kids that engages their senses. The plants are an integral part of the experience, diverse and playful, with an emphasis on unusual colors, textures, and scents. Fanciful shapes abound, like the Ponytail palms () that appear to have been created by Dr. Seuss, and carnivorous pitcher plants () that almost seem to grin as they contemplate their dinner of bugs. Topiary animals with neatly trimmed greenery surround a vine-covered topiary cottage, and fragrant magnolia blossoms fill the air with their summery, citrusy scent. Papyrus plants incline their shaggy heads near the shimmer and splash of toddler-sized fountains, and lemony-scented geraniums run up a flight of steps by the fog grotto. The red leaves of a New Zealand flax shoot up from a topiary volcano like flames. The Children’s Garden is specifically designed for young visitors between the ages of two and seven but will appeal to anyone who is young at heart.