Spring Garden Festival
This is Gainesville's premier horticultural event. The Spring Garden Festival features about 200 booths offering plants, landscape displays, garden accessories, arts and crafts, educational exhibits and, of course, foods. Also featured are a walk-through butterfly conservatory, children's activities area, live entertainment and live auctions. Parking is free and two off-site parking areas are serviced by shuttle buses. The theme for this year's festival is "Passalong Plants," representing the staple plants that are passed along from generations and between friends.
The children's area is free with regular admission price. The children's area will include a bounce house, face painting, arts and crafts, cookie walk, photo opportunities and a special guest appearance of the Chick-Fil A cow. The children's area will continue the theme of "Passalong Plants" in our potted plant area. Children will plant a flowering plant complimentary of Hatchett Creek Nursery and Kanapaha will provide a sensitivity plant for each child to take home.
Admission is $8 for Adults and $5 for children two to thirteen. Cash only (no credit cards) at these events. A $2 discount is given for members of Kanapaha. SUNDAY IS CONSIDERED TO BE FAMILY DAY AND CHILDREN GET IN FOR HALF PRICE! Pets are not allowed at these festivals.
What to Expect
The Spring Garden Festival is an annual celebration held at the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens located in southwest Gainesville, Florida. The festival has about 200 booths including many where patrons can select from a variety of plants to add color, shade and beauty to their yards and gardens. Patrons can also purchase garden related products including tools, furniture and outdoor decorations. In addition there are booths staffed by local gardening and environmental organizations. In these booths, patrons can gather information about plants, ponds, pests, the environment at large, and a variety of other topics. There are also a number booths presented by artisans who create a wide range of fine arts and crafts for your home or garden.
No festival would be complete without a large variety of foods available along with picnic areas where they can be enjoyed. The Festival has two stages featuring live local entertainers as well as a free butterfly house for visitors of all ages.
Young visitors will enjoy our free Children's Activities Area where they can pot plants, create floral arrangements, design newspaper hats and be involved in a wide variety of supervised activities. On Saturday afternoon patrons have an opportunity to get bargains by bidding on plants donated by area nurseries at the Live Auction.
The Spring Garden Festival is filled with activities and opportunities to gather information, and purchase plants or other garden related products. There is plenty of food, and entertainment, and seating areas so everyone can enjoy their stay at the festival. Comfortable shoes, broad brimmed hats and sunscreen can make the hours of meandering through the festival more enjoyable. The festival is located in grassy areas and under trees so we recommend fat wheeled strollers, walkers or wheelchairs. For those of you who expect to purchase large plants, numerous small plants or many other items, we recommend that you bring a wagon or small pull cart. Should you find yourself in need of assistance carrying your purchases we offer a Tote-N-Carry service manned by Interlachen High School ROTC students and supervised by an adult sponsor. The students can help gather your purchases and transport them to a holding area located at the entrance of the Festival, where you will be able to drive in and pick them up. Any tips the students receive for providing this service go towards their school activities. For this reason we encourage you to please tip them generously.
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