Last weekend we attended the summer plant sale at the USF Botanical Gardens.  I noticed that they had quite a few flowers through out the garden blooming as well as lots of butterflies flying around.  So, we went back this week after the plant sale ended and spent some time walking through the gardens and taking photographs.  Jimbo and Abby came along for the walk but soon found out it was a photography trip and they would be doing a bit of waiting on us (instead of the other way around).  Afterwards they got a treat from the local pet store, Pet Wize while we ate lunch at the Windmill here in Temple Terrace.

So what's blooming?  Quite a few plants (I know most of them, but those I don't - maybe you can drop me a comment and let me know if you know).  The blanket flower is a beautiful flower - especially in numbers!  I see them in the road medians and they are so pretty as a large group.

Firecracker plant - with a lizard hanging out watching us!

Help! What is this beautiful purple flower nestled in all the green? (I suppose I could google it, but it's more fun to ask you!)

Hibiscus - they have several different colors of these flowers blooming in the garden - this one was a very pretty deep pink color.

Purslane - these are such small flowers that most people don't notice how beautiful and delicate they are up close.

Begonia - the beautiful soft colors of the pink flowers against the green was to much for me to pass up.

In the orchid area, this lizard was hanging out watching us.  I wanted him to open up his neck area, but I didn't have all day and he was pushing my patience as I was getting eaten by a good number of mosquitoes in the orchid area.  We learned a good bit about the orchids here at this garden that are cared for by the Tampa Bay Orchid Society.  Several people from this group were busy tending to the orchids and putting out new orchids that were blooming while taking those no longer blooming back to the green house where they have a LOT of orchids!

White rose - they have several different types of roses here at the garden.

That's all for this week - the USF Botanical Gardens are open to the public.  The entrance fee is $5 and parking is free - can't beat that for a nice walk in the garden.