The White River Gardens are located right next to the Indianapolis Zoo and share the same parking lot ($4 to park your car). For only $12.50, I bought a combo pass to the zoo and the gardens.
The gardens were lovely and had an endless assortment of plants and flowers. I'm sure it would be an absolute dream to any avid gardener. The gift shop also seemed to cater to gardeners with all sorts of gardening implements and floral items for sale.
We entered the garden through the butterfly conservatory which is a two-story glass building filled with plants and butterflies flying around. It was amazing to see so many butterflies and some people were lucky enough to have them land on them (a great photo opp!) To try and avoid butterflies escaping you enter through double doors. They close one set before opening the next. There was also someone standing at the exit checking people over for stow-away butterflies on clothing. The sign on the conservatory said there were supposed to be 10,000 butterflies in the conservatory. It certainly didn't seem to be 10,000, although I was told by a local that a bird had gotten into the conservatory a few months before and had gobbled up a lot of butterflies.
The gardens themselves were lovely and we saw chairs set up for a wedding to be held there later that day. Certainly a gorgeous spot for a wedding.
While the gardens were pretty, they would appeal more to adults than kids. The butterly conservatory, on the other hand, would appeal to all ages.
(Check out the White River Gardens website.)