Road Trips Gardeners who specialize in bromeliads should be making plans to head to the University of South Florida’s Botanical Gardens on August 14, 2010. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., there’s a Bromeliad Bonanza!

There are lectures planned at 10 a.m. and noon. Bromeliad experts will be on hand to answer all your bromeliad questions and make suggestions on planting locations and designs. Plus, the garden’s Plant Shop will be featuring many different types of bromeliads from the common to the extraordinary for sale.

The Gardens are located at 12210 USF Pine Drive, Tampa, Florida — near the southwest corner of the University of South Florida campus, at the intersection of Pine and Alumni Drive.

The mission of the Botanical Gardens at University of South Florida is to foster appreciation, understanding, and stewardship of the natural and cultural botanical heritage through living plant collections, displays, education, and research. Collections and displays in the gardens include: orchids, begonias, mallows, bromeliads, gingers, ferns, aroids, fruit trees, palms, cycads, carnivorous plants, butterfly garden, herb and scent gardens. The Gardens maintain a living collection of over 3,000 taxa of plants and natural habitats that emphasize the rich botanical diversity of the Tampa Bay area. Throughout the Gardens, visitors will find many animal and insect species, from gopher tortoises to butterflies to over 60 species of birds.