The Fifth Avenue Gate Into Central Park's Formal Garden

Conservatory Garden is the only formal garden inside Central Park, six acres of clipped hedges and fountains reached through the wrought-iron Vanderbilt Gate on Fifth Avenue at 105th Street. It divides into three designed rooms, an Italian center with a wisteria pergola, a French north garden where the Untermyer Fountain lifts three dancing bronze figures above a spring ring of tulips, and an English south garden built around the Burnett Fountain. Bikes and picnics are barred here, keeping the gravel paths hushed while joggers pass along the avenue wall outside. Chrysanthemums take over the beds by October.