USF Announces Summer Plant Festival Dates

Green thumbs eager to get the University of South Florida Botanical Gardens’ Summer Plant Festival on their calendars don’t have to wait any longer to do so.

USF announced that its annual summertime event will take place June 27-28 with lots of workshops on tap, plenty of plants for sale and activities for children, among other draws. Visitors will find the festival runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, June 27, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. The cost to get in is $5 for adults with children 12 and under free. All proceeds benefit the 12210 USF Pine Drive botanical gardens.

Plant lovers who want to learn more about growing will find a number of workshops on this year’s schedule:

Saturday

• Native Plants – 11 a.m.
• Butterfly garden – This tour of the USF garden and educational talk gets under way at noon
• Growing Herbs – 1 p.m.
• Cooking with Herbs – 1:30 p.m. (samples will be available)

Sunday

• Plumeria Care 101 – 11 a.m.

Festival goers will also find a number of vendors have already lined up to sell rare and popular fruit trees, orchids, gingers, bromeliads, native plants, butterfly plants, herbs and more. On Sunday, there will also be a “Pepper Beauty Contest,” which is billed as a “tasteful” beauty contest. Anyone who brings a decorated pepper to enter into the contest on Sunday gets free admission. Plus, there are prizes for contestants.

The gardens are located near the Tampa campus’ southwest corner at the intersection of Pine and Alumni drives, just off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. For more information, visit the USF Botanical Gardens online.

Photos courtesy of USF Botanical Gardens/Sierra Lauck