A Day at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainsville

Leave it to me to choose the hottest day of the year to date to visit the Kanapaha Botanical Garden. I knew I had to visit here, our niece Jaclyn received her very romantic wedding proposal on the bridge over the water feature and I was determined to see what it looked like. It took us about 45 minutes to drive there on I-75 and much longer to come home on a more scenic route. 

We arrived at about 10:30 a.m and headed to the Woodland Trail. It is quite shaded which certainly helped. We wander through that section to the sink holes and into the Bamboo Garden. I loved the peace of this area and the statue of Buddha seemed perfect. There was not too much blooming in the herb garden at this time but the spring garden had plenty of color. 

We stopped and spent a little time resting in the gazebo at the Hummingbird Garden before heading to the Rock Garden and the Palm Hammock. We stopped on the porch of the Spring House to rock in the chairs on the porch and get our temperature down a little before heading over to the second part of the garden.

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The azalea and camellias garden still had plenty of colors and the rose garden was very fragrant. Only a few plants were blooming in the bulb garden so we headed across the bridge and then back over to see the waterfall and the butterfly garden.

I was obsessed with the butterflies and tried very hard to get a great picture I was not very successful but by this time I was so warm and over-heated that I ready to call it a day.

The gift shop had some interesting things but I want to buy local not from China and almost everything that appealed to me was from China. So unfortunately I left without a souvenir of my visit other than some great memories.

Next year I think I will go in January when the weather is cooler and maybe the camellias will be at their peak. I highly recommend visiting Kanapaha Botanical Gardens if you are going to be in the area, it is a lovely place.