GARDENS at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, the formal gardens now complement one of Florida's finest art collections, but are much older than the museum itself. Having made their fortune in logging Florida's cypress, the Cummer family built a grand home on the St. Johns, with gardens landscaped to impress. The first garden, started in 1903, was the English Garden. In the 1930s both William Lyman Phillips and Ellen Biddle Shipman were hired - by different family members - to redesign the garden space. Those designs persist today, with Shipman's Italian Garden using arches to direct your gaze out over the St. Johns River. One of the oldest live oaks in the region, a landmark from the river, was incorporated into the design of the Upper Garden. Open in concert with the museum, the gardens are included in the admission price and are accessed via the loggia.

https://www.cummermuseum.org