Make wishtv.com your home page

Hundreds of poinsettias, thousands of lights on display at Garfield Park Conservatory

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The coronavirus pandemic may have changed or canceled some holiday vacations this year, but one group is sharing an option to swap out the cold for the tropics without leaving central Indiana.

Tropical Holiday is now open at Garfield Park Conservatory as a new and scaled down version of the group’s traditional holiday activities.

“We normally have a train show and a larger scavenger hunt for kids, but this year we still wanted to invite people to explore the conservatory in a festive way,” said Elizabeth Schleicher, assistant conservatory manager.

There is still the Garfield Express train that runs below the large Christmas tree and the large scavenger hunt has been replaced with a Santa Sloth hunt with hidden stuffed sloths throughout the tropical gardens.

“We have hundreds of poinsettias and new this year are our LED color lights instead of the all white lights,” added Schleicher.

Schleicher also stressed the conservatory’s COVID-19 precautions. They include decals on the floor reminding people to social distance, hand sanitizer and requiring advanced tickets to allow for capacity limits.

Tropical Holiday runs through December 31 and admission is $4. Tickets can be purchased here.