skip to main content

Florida Gardening

USF Butterfly/Herbs/Natives Plant Fair

15 years ago

Happening next weekend. I'll probably be there. If you're in Tampa, stop on by.

This is verbatim from their website...

The USF Botanical Gardens

2008 Butterfly, Herbs

& Native Plant Fair

Featuring Native Habitats

June 14 & 15

Saturday 10:00 to 4:00

Sunday 10:00 to 3:00

Admission is $4 for adults;

Children and USF Botanical Garden members are admitted free.

Â Grand opening of the new Seminole-style chickee hut!

Â Hundreds of butterflies can be seen in the Butterfly House.

Â Catch the Butterfly Spirit by sponsoring a Butterfly for a year

and get a stepping stone set in the Garden with your name and

butterfly name on it. Design it yourself!

Â Dozens of vendors will be selling butterfly plants, herbs and

related items.

Â There will be Native Plants for sale and the Suncoast Native

Plant Society offering planting information to create a backyard

inviting to butterflies and other fauna.

Â Backyard Habitat Lecture at 10:00 by Laurie Walker.

Â Native Plant workshop at 12:00 by former Native Plant

Society President, George Kish..

Â NatureÂs Classroom will be set up with Florida wildlife on

Saturday.

Â Botanical Illustrations by Debra Carey on display both days.

Â Caterpillar Petting Zoo & Children's Activity Area

For more information, please call the Gardens at (813) 974-2329 or

check our website:www.cas.usf.edu/garden

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (11)

mboston_gw
15 years ago
Thanks for posting this. I knew it had to be coming up soon and I always go to this one.
naplesgardener
15 years ago
Thanks so much for posting this in advance. I get so frustrated when I hear about things the day before (or worse the day after).
I don't know if I can go but it sounds great. I am always wanting MORE butterfly plants.
I saw a Pipevine BF in my yard today, the first one I've seen.
I love that blue glitter on them.
Related Discussions
USF Botanical Gardens Spring Plant Festival Saturday
Q
Comments (7)
I left home with the intention of only picking up one or two plants. I left the festival with more than I expected but there were still many more that I would like but had to pass on. We started off with a Walter's Viburnum from the Florida Native Plant Society as we had planned on. My wife then found a different type of chives from D&D Growers for our food while I picked out a fennel for the butterflies and a pineapple sage for the hummingbirds. I then found the Bat-faced Cuphea that I had more then ten years ago. I've not seen this same variety since. Here's my favorite photo of that flower. That nursery had a buy 5 get one free so I also picked up a different cuphea llavea (I believe twinkle pink), a hummingbird mint (agastache), a variegated red Greg's Salvia that looks more like a Van Houttes than a Greg's to me, an australian annual called Joey ( http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/gardening/features/6186768.html ), and a serrano pepper. Steve
...See More
USF Gardens Plant Fair June 9 & 10
Q
Comments (2)
I was there today! It was smaller than usual and there were far fewer customers than usual. It seems the threat of storms put a lot of people off. We went to the talk on Native Butterfly Plants. Interesting. I am very pleased with my haul, especially a tray of lovely plants, a personal gift from one of the vendors! While we were chatting at the previous fair she offered to root cuttings of some of her own favorite plants and bring them for me this weekend. I didn't expect her to remember but she did! What kindness! Did you visit the fair, Irma? Anyone else?
...See More
tropical plant sale USF botanical garden
Q
Comments (20)
Yeah, I was there with my rosemary on. I saw Musicman and aroidgardener. The prices seemed a little high to me but then there wasn't anything I was looking for. I got a ginger root and a red crimun which totaled $10. I'm really trying to curb the spending. I've planted a bunch of stuff over the last year and most of it just needs a chance to grow and I'll have jungal.
...See More
USF Plant Sale-next weekend
Q
Comments (20)
Darren, Yeah, with a full day having passed, the vendors have a chance to peruse "the competition", and try to release as much stock as possible without having to haul it all away, so there's always a number of them who take 10-25% off their prices, depending on Saturday's success. In July, when USF had their Tropical Plants sale, I met this really amazing guy. He'd bug you about buying stuff, but in the most meaningless and unaffronting manor. He'd spout things like "The only good plant is a sold plant!" and "Don't make me lug this stuff home!" When I got home from the fair, I did some research on him, trying to find his shop. All I found were a few articles from the St Pete Times (now the Tampa Bay Times) dating back to 2001 or so. He had a nursery on Gunn highway, family sold some of the acreage for Citrus Park Mall parking and he was planning to move out west. He'd swam in the pond on his property, unafraid of the gators or various other insects/reptiles around the property. All these years later he was still working with USF, but I couldn't find any info on a shop/nursery now. He's famous for his ridiculously cheap gingers, bromeliads and other tropical goods. I was looking forward to seeing him again, but alas, he didn't make it this time around.
...See More
the_musicman
Original Author
15 years ago
*BUMP*

see you this weekend. if you're going, that is.
wildflowerchris
15 years ago
i've been to the plant fair a bunch of times. its a lot of fun.
mboston_gw
15 years ago
We are planning on being there about 10:00 or a little earlier in case they open up early to non members. I will be wearing a white t-shirt with a butterfly in the middle and probably have on a visor from Niagara Falls.

DH will be with me, probably pulling my rusty yellow cart if we can get it in the van without it falling apart!
goldenpond
15 years ago
I am hitting Leu Gardens next week with my DH for my Birthday.The lecture will be Chinese Herbs.
laura1
15 years ago
I got a firebush (Hamelia patens) a Duchman's Pipe and another hoya (couldn't resist!). More butterflies please!
mboston_gw
15 years ago
Just got back. Probably crossed paths with you Laura. I bought most of my stuff at the USF booth. Got 6 tall Pentas, Jatropha. Bought some Bronze fennel and dill fromthe guy across from the USF place. Got a "quirrels Tail plant and a Verbena from the place that had all the Salvia and Cosmos. Found a Maypops Passionvine another place on the other side.

Sure was smaller than in the past. Missed seeing the Greathouse butterfly nursery people, Crowleys and the Croton Cociety people.

I got more than I went for and found what I wanted but still would have liked to check out the others that are normally there.

On the plus side - there were lots of butterflies around their butterfly garden and that was good to see.
laura1
15 years ago
I got my things from the usf place too! :-0
Did you see the Chickee hut? It is pretty cool!
mboston_gw
15 years ago
Were you the one that asked the guy at the checkout about wanting the Pipevine like the big one that was hanging over the entrance to the shady area and he told you he had another kind with smaller flowers and where it was? If so I was standing right there!

Sorry for all the misspelled words. Guess I should check my typing better.

No, I didn't make it there. Hubby was standing with the cart we brought and I was grabbing plants as fast as I could.
laura1
15 years ago
no that wasn't me. i was the one who wanted to make sure that the fire bush was the native one and so i took it over to the guy from the native plant society for ID.
I didn't bother to ask DH to go w/ me. He can be such a PAIN. I enjoy myself more w/o him at these plant things.

Related Stories

GARDENING FOR BUTTERFLIES 7 Native Wildflowers to Make You an Awesome Butterfly Host

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Offer the leaves of these and you’ll get more butterflies than with flower nectar alone

GARDENING GUIDES Great Design Plant: Asclepias Incarnata for a Butterfly Garden

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Beautiful swamp milkweed makes it easy to help monarchs and other pollinators in eastern U.S. gardens

EARTH DAY Native Plants 101

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Learn what they are, where they are and why we need them

GARDENING GUIDES We Bust 4 More Native Plant Myths

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Have you been taken in by these fallacies about gardening with native plants?

GARDENING GUIDES 10 Deer-Resistant Native Flowers to Plant This Fall

Learn about natives that embrace some kinds of wildlife but resist grazing deer

NATIVE PLANTS Great Native Plant: Grow Wild Quinine for Its Unique Clusters of Blooms

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Get connoisseur cred and unique blooms with this uncommon plant. Bonus assets: It’s low maintenance and drought tolerant

GARDENING GUIDES How to Find the Right Native Plants for Your Yard

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Find plant maps, sale sites and guides that make going native in the garden easier than ever

GARDENING GUIDES 6 Plants That Beat Butterfly Bush for the Wildlife Draw

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

It's invasive, a nonnative and a poor insect magnet. Check out these better alternatives to butterfly bush in the garden

GARDENING GUIDES Great Design Plant: Butterfly-Friendly Crossvine

By J. Peterson Garden Design

Colorful climber gives gardens a boost year-round with bountiful blooms

NATIVE PLANTS Great Design Plant: Color Outside the Lines With Bluebell Bellflower

By Pollination Press LLC

Plant this Campanula on pathway and patio edges for shots of bright blue from May through September

Sponsored

Davidson Builders

1 Review

Franklin County's Full-Scale General Contractor

More Discussions

Diagnosing problems with firespike in Sarasota

5

2024 January : upload your photos of first blooms of season

19

Rats in the garden ID?

6

Greening Satsuma

2

New Blooms Feb./Mar.

26