The Children’s Area is in a NEW LOCATION. on the north side near the middle of the Festival. The Children's area provides a number of supervised activities for the children to choose from as they create things to take home. All of the activities are free for the children when accompanied by an adult.

Free Child ID

In this day and age it is important for parents to have a way to help law enforcement personnel identify their children if they get lost or injured. The Gainesville Masonic Lodge has received a grant from The Gainesville Charitable Foundation that will provide parents with a free identification packet and video of each of their children.  The process is quick and simple and can be completed in a few minutes.

To insure privacy all materials are given to the parents and no copies or information is retained by the Masonic Lodge, Gainesville Garden Club or Kanapaha Botanical Gardens.

Things to do:

Saturday Morning Interactive Butterfly Activities

Volunteers from the Florida Museum of Natural History will present a series of butterfly activities for the children to take part in including FACE PAINTING.

Paint On Paper Walls

This area is sponsored by Chick-fil-A and includes individual easels where kids can paint with watercolor paints of every color and create their own masterpiece to take home for their family to enjoy.

Pot A Plant

Children can pick a colorful pot painted by local Girl Scout Troop members and learn how to pot their own plant cutting with the help of our volunteers. The kids are told how to care for their plant and get to take them home with them. A variety of plant seedlings are provided by Hatchett Creek Nursery for this activity. The Kanapaha Botanical Gardens also provides a small seedling Sensitivity Plant for each child to take home, as well!

Create a "Buggy" Visor Cap

Make and decorate your own sun visor with foam squiggly insects.

Design a Watercolor Butterfly Magnet

Paper coffee filters transform themselves to colorful butterflies you can use on your new visor hat or can become a magnet for your refrigerator.

Caterpillar to Butterfly

Make a Wiggly Caterpillar that magically transforms to a beautiful butterfly when flipped over.

Help Create a Giant Butterfly Mosaic

This activity is sponsored by Home Depot.  Children may choose to add various colorful paint chips to help create a giant butterfly mosaic that will remain on display for the public to admire when they visit the gardens.  There will be "how to" demonstrations and classes provided by Home Depot volunteers throughout the weekend.

Ikebana Ikenobo

Garden Club volunteers help kids learn the art of Japanese floral design. Each child will fill a container with live flowers and greenery to create a unique Japanese floral arrangement.

Photo Opportunity (parents bring along your cameras)

Among the Flowers

A large wooden flower grouping with two different height levels for kids to stand behind and put their head through to have their picture taken.

The Children's Area is sponsored by the Gainesville Garden Club.