Photos: Diggin' the Arts Returns to the Florida Botanical Gardens

The second annual Diggin' the Arts Festival was Sunday at the Florida Botanical Gardens.

Diggin' the Arts returned to the Florida Botanical Gardens Sunday. The gardens are well known for their beautiful flowers, vines and landscaping but art continues to be an integral part of the gardens.  Sunday's festivities included hands-on art and gardening demonstrations and activities by area art centers and museums. Visitors learned how to make melting orchid pots, transformed leaves with decoupage,  learned how to grow orchids and more. As visitors walked around the colorful floral paths of the gardens, plein-air artists captured the scenery on canvas. Local artists participated in the non-juried painting competition. Visitors could participate to win rain barrels, which were specially created for the event by area museums and art …

• Photos (11)

Diggin' the Arts is Sunday

The second annual Diggin' the Arts Festival is Sunday at the Florida Botanical Gardens. The event features hands-on art and gardening activities with museums and art centers from around the region.

Want to Get Married on Valentine's Day in Largo?

Pinellas County's Clerk of the Circuit Court will be holding its annual group wedding ceremony on Valentine's Day at the Florida Botanical Gardens. If you want to participate, you're encouraged to sign up now.

Ken Burke, Clerk of the Circuit Court, announced that couples will be joined together for a group wedding ceremony on Valentine’s Day, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2013, at the romantic Wedding Garden at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. This is the seventh year the Clerk’s Office is hosting this event, which has become a county tradition. Once again, the single ceremony uniting multiple couples in marriage will be held in the beautiful Florida Botanical Gardens’ Wedding Garden. Forty couples participated in the sixth annual Valentine’s Day Group wedding ceremony. The ceremony was performed under a beautiful picture-perfect blue sky in the romantic Wedding Garden at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. As part of the ceremony, the couples …

• Photos (7)

Strolling Through the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo

Sometimes the Florida Botanical Gardens' brightest colors are at night.

Largo's Florida Botanical Gardens lights up like a Christmas tree every December. Not just one Christmas tree, though – all of them. It's one of those rare Florida nights when it actually feels like winter feels in most of the country. I’m not complaining; I love that I can wear shorts on Christmas. But when we do get a cold burst, I feel brilliantly alive out in the elements, wrapped in a scarf and breathing the cold air. That’s what I’m doing tonight, and I’m doing it at the Florida Botanical Gardens. There’s no snow, but it’s a Florida wonderland all its own over here. Everywhere I look, lights sparkle against the rich backdrop of green fringe and brilliant blossoms. I walk across a long bridge to reach the sparkly, shiny brilliance and…

• Photos (7)

Holiday Lights in the Florida Botanical Gardens Start Tonight

The annual holiday lights display at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo runs from through Jan. 1.

Holiday Lights Return to Florida Botanical Gardens

The annual holiday lights display at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo runs from Nov. 23 through Jan. 1.

More than 500,000 lights will sparkle in the Florida Botanical Gardens this holiday season. The 12th annual Holiday Lights in the Garden runs nightly from Nov. 23 through Jan. 1 in Largo. Expect the spectacular annual display to be more colorful. The holiday light display's new contractor redesigned the color layout and added more color to the Palm Garden and Tropical Garden, wrote Terry Berube of the Florida Botanical Gardens Foundation in an email. The holiday light display will have new laser lights, new fountains for the McKay Creek and a new motif for the wall fountain. Expect more lights as the display has expanded this year into the garden's new vinery, Berube wrote. The holiday event includes light refreshments for sale, live …

• Photos (1)
• Videos (1)

Celebrate 100 Years in Pinellas

Celebrate Pinellas' Centennial with fishing, native plants, hands-on history and baseball.

Botanical Gardens Adds a Vinery

The new area increases the formal gardens by approximately 8,000 square-feet.

Florida Botanical Garden visitors walk through the vinery on a winding white shell path passing by a number of individual trellises.  At the end of the walkway is a serene sitting area shaded by oak trees and overlooking a pond surrounded by native plants. The new vinery is located on the northern most part of the formal gardens next to the Palm Garden.  It will be accessed on the northeast side of the Palm Garden.  The entrance will come off of a new 18-foot circular cement landing that mirrors the one at the southern end of the Tropical Walk.  This new landing will connect the Palm Garden, Memorial Walkway, Vinery and maintenance area. The trellises are up and planting of the vines is in process.  Vines planted so far include:  alamanda…

• Photos (1)

Five Things to Know Today: Tuesday, May 15

Ground breaking ceremony at the Highland Rec Complex, a city commission meeting, and bring an umbrella!

1. The official ground breaking ceremony for the new Highland Recreation Complex will take place on the property grounds at 5:00pm. City government officials as well as Parks and Recreation staff will be on hand to take part in the ceremony, which marks the beginning of the construction phase of the new 40,000-sq. ft. facility. Light refreshments will be served. Enter through the Lake Avenue entrance. 2. Largo City Commissioners meet this evening to discuss the latest agenda items, which include new traffic light warning systems on Clearwater Largo Road, the removal of old fuel tanks from the former PSTA property, and the results of the Community Values Survey will be discussed. The meeting beings at 6:00pm at City Hall. 3. The Florida …

• Photos (4)

Largo in Pictures

Photo Gallery: Diggin' the Arts

People celebrated art in the Florida Botanical Gardens on Sunday with painting, art exhibits, and garden tours.

The Florida Botanical Gardens became an outdoor art studio on Sunday. Plein air artists painted along the walkways and patios. Visitors wandered through the gardens, watched the artists at work, snapped photos and even paused to smell the roses and gardenias. The open air painting competition, orchid cultivation tips, and hands-on art activities for children were part of the first-ever Diggin' the Arts festival. The new event celebrated art in the gardens. Several Pinellas County museums offered exhibits and demonstrations during the beautiful Sunday in the gardens. The Florida Botanical Gardens, 12520 Ulmerton Road in Largo, are open every day from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Admission is free. Visit www.flbg.org or call 727-582-2100.

• Photos (21)