Green Animals Topiary Garden
More than eighty clipped animals and geometric forms share a seven-acre estate garden with flowers, fruit trees, vegetables, and a bay-facing house.
Artwork inspired by Sarah J. Eddy
Green Animals is the oldest topiary garden in the United States, but its appeal is broader than novelty shapes. Generations of gardeners trained yew, privet, and boxwood into animals while maintaining orchards, annual beds, and domestic garden spaces that reveal long-term horticultural labor.
Topiary is living architecture, so season and recent pruning change what appears sharp or lush. Walk the garden from several angles, protect low borders from children and tripods, and verify whether the house or special display is open. Shade is limited in core beds. Children often notice shapes first, while gardeners will find the plant health, training frames, and succession equally revealing.
- Topiaries
- More than 80
- Estate
- Seven acres
- Claim
- Oldest U.S. topiary garden
Quick guide
- Circle each form
- Silhouette changes with every viewing angle.
- Look past animals
- Include orchard, vegetables, and flowers.
Know before you go
- Circle each form
- Silhouette changes with every viewing angle.
- Look past animals
- Include orchard, vegetables, and flowers.
- Notice pruning
- Living sculpture records skilled labor.
- Check the season
- The property closes for extended winter periods.
Good to know
The garden’s season is shorter than major Newport mansion schedules. Wet grass, narrow paths, bees, and limited shade affect comfort; topiary beds are not play structures.
Notice these
- Animal topiaries
- Victorian house
- Bay-facing gardens