Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Alachua County, Florida

Photograph: Gainesville FL Kanapaha Botanical Gardens bldg01.jpg by Ebyabe · CC BY 2.5 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Alachua County attraction

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens

Alachua County · North Florida & First Coast

Sixty-two acres of planted gardens southwest of Gainesville, run by a botanical society and built around a one-mile paved loop.

HIGHLIGHTS

68 acres & 24 collections1.5-mile paved garden walkBamboo & water featuresSeasonal flowering displays

ABOUT THIS PLACE

The North Florida Botanical Society spent eight years building the gardens before opening them to the public in 1986, and the society still runs them. The grounds cover about 62 acres, and a paved walkway of roughly a mile links the collections, so the whole place can be walked without leaving pavement. Six gazebos sit along it, and two boardwalks reach out over sinkholes. The collections are the reason to come. The bamboo garden was the largest public bamboo collection in Florida as of 2005, holding giant timber bamboo, black bamboo and lemon lime bamboo among others, and a stand of mature timber bamboo is a strange thing to walk into in north Florida. The herb garden is the largest in the southeast. There is also a hummingbird garden planted for what it attracts, a rose garden and a rock garden, along with a good deal else. An entrance building holds the gift shop. The Spring Garden Festival has run every March since 1990, and an October open house and fall plant sale have run since 1995, with an orchid society joining from 2008

VISIT BASICS

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun; last entry 4:15 p.m.; closed Thu
Admission: Adults $12 + tax; children 5-13 $7 + tax; under 5 free with parent
Parking: On-site visitor parking; entrance is from SW Archer Road about 1 mile west of I-75
Best time to go: Allow daylight for the full garden walk; seasonal color is strongest at different times of year
Length of visit: 1.5-3 hours for a relaxed walk through the collections
Accessibility: The 1.5-mile paved walkway is described by the garden as handicap accessible, with benches and gazebos along the route

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official Website ↗

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