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Green Thumb Festival returns to St. Petersburg this weekend

The popular plant festival returns with free mulch, plant giveaways and horticulture workshops.
 
At the 2011 Green Thumb Festival, a patron walks by the garden baskets at the Colorfield Farms booth at St. Petersburg's Walter Fuller Park. The annual plant and landscape festival returns Saturday and Sunday after a two-year absence.
At the 2011 Green Thumb Festival, a patron walks by the garden baskets at the Colorfield Farms booth at St. Petersburg's Walter Fuller Park. The annual plant and landscape festival returns Saturday and Sunday after a two-year absence. [ Times (2011) ]
Published April 19, 2022|Updated April 19, 2022

After a two-year absence because of the pandemic, the popular Green Thumb Festival returns to St. Petersburg this weekend, bringing free plant and mulch giveaways, a flower show and activities for kids.

The festival has been a tonic for spring fever for nearly 40 years in St. Petersburg. Shoppers pull wagons around to more than 120 vendors selling flowers, trees, garden decor, butterfly attractors, herbs and more at Walter Fuller Park.

Bring soil or water samples for diagnostic testing, ask an arborist questions and bring your dull tools for sharpening. There will be more than 2,000 trees for sale for $5 each, and free butterfly plants and free mulch will be available both Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At the 2003 Green Thumb Festival, a boy tries to kiss a butterfly on display at Walter Fuller Park. Free butterfly plants will be given away at this year's festival, as well as more than 2,000 trees for $5 each. [ ZUPPA, CHRIS | Times (2003) ]

Inside the Walter Fuller community center, the St. Petersburg Garden Club holds its annual flower show with some stunning displays.

There will be arts, crafts and hands-on presentations at the Kids Tent and horticultural and environmental presentations at the Main Tent.

A Garden Wagon Parade and Decorating Contest will be held at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Anyone can enter to deck out their garden wagon for prizes, one for kids and one for adults. Entry fee is $5. Register at stpeteparksrec.org/greenthumb.

New this year is a lineup of free workshops for adults taught by master gardeners. Registration is required because space is limited at stpeteparksrec.org/greenthumb.

If you go

Green Thumb Festival: More than 120 garden, plant and flower vendors and exhibitors will be on hand 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Walter Fuller Park, 7891 26th Ave. N, St. Petersburg. Free.