I went back to see if any foliage had emerged or enlarged and all the flowers had disappeared; I am guessing that they finished blooming and died back, but they only bloomed for about a week at the most.

Geranium. Looks like herb robert below (tiny pink flowers) and another geranium above with the purple flowers. Probably one of the ornamental garden varieties as opposed to a wild one like G. maculatum. FataMorgana

I'm pretty sure the link below is a photo of the plant in question. That was easy to find. But now I'm having difficulty with the exact name, either familiar or botanical. Is it Rhexia virginica http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=RHVI&photoID=rhvi_007_avp.tif or R. mariana http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=RHMA or some other? And the weird thing is, I found it originally by searching for 'florida onagraceae' because that's the family it reminded me of, so how did I even end up with Melastomataceae, which I hadn't even heard of (and I didn't search that long, the link below is the very first thing I came up with). Here is a link that might be useful: the plant in question?

That was rather polite, Babs!! I would call it an aggressive thug that needs its own - and good-sized - corner of the garden if you grow it at all. Although to be fair, comfrey can do some wonderful things for your garden!