10-8-2013 Green Drinks at the IMA Gardens

On Tuesday we arrived at about 5pm at the Greenhouse on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) for Green Drinks.  About a dozen people came for the event.  The Greenhouse and gift shop stayed open a little later for us to shop, and outside there was free beer from Indiana City Beer and Sun King Brewing Co.  At about 6pm the Director of Horticulture at IMA, Chad Franer, took us all on a tour of the grounds.  He showed us the newest rain garden (IMA's second rain garden), which was just finished this past spring.  It runs along where the old interurban electric rail line went through long ago.

on the bridge overlooking the IMA's new rain garden

The first rain garden filters runoff from one half of the Greenhouse parking lot.
This new rain garden helps filter runoff from the other half of the parking lot and the rest of the grounds.

Chad then led us through the rest of the IMA grounds.  He noted which plants had beautiful foliage for most of the year, which ones had blooms until late in the year, which ones could live in poor soil, which ones didn't need much light, and which ones were annuals (all plants in the rain garden are annuals).  Chad is a wealth of information about plants of all kinds.

Cara loved this plant but forgot to note the name of it.
The red spiky things are softer and springier than they appear.

"Beauty Berry" plants

The front entrance to the IMA.
Beautiful landscaping now surrounds the fountain that you used to be able to drive around.