Celebrate Spring

Take a stroll through magical gardens during the Annual Spring Garden Festival at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. On Saturday (3/20 9am-6pm) and Sunday (3/21 10am to 5pm), the expansive gardens will host landscape displays, 200 booths offering plants and gardening tools, a children’s area, live entertainment and, of course, great food. Visit the Butterfly House, then learn more about gardening during a live gardening seminar. Finally, bid at the silent and live auctions to help raise money for scholarships, beautification projects and research.

A collaborative effort of the Gainesville Garden Club, Frontrunners Chapter of the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association and volunteers, the festival is in its 20th year and is a perfect time to experience the gardens if you’ve never had the chance.

“It is first meant to be a celebration of the beginning of spring,” says Alexis Caffrey, assistant director of Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. “It is also a way to celebrate the outdoors and gardening.”

Admission is $7 for adults and $4 for children. For more information, visit gardenfestival.org.

--Bridget Higginbotham