Friends of Eden Gardens State Park

03/28/2026

Would you like to learn how the Friends Of Eden supports Eden Gardens State Park? We are holding our Annual Member's meeting and Trivia Night on April 14th starting at 6PM catered by 3-Son's BBQ. This event is free for current members, and $20 for anyone else who would like attend. Between rounds of Trivia, the Friends of Eden Board will provide updates on upcoming projects, as well as a summary of what we accomplished in 2025. Please RSVP to [email protected] if you would like to attend, as seating is limited. You can become a member at the event or on our website: https://www.friendsofedengardens.com/membership.html

03/01/2026

The azaleas are starting to bloom at Eden Gardens State Park! We have a few pockets with lots of color but most of the azaleas are still budded up and should be opening over the next week or two. There are also still plenty of Camellias blooming, which makes this the perfect time to come visit the park.

Eden Gardens State Park is open daily from 8am till sunset and the entry fee is $4 per vehicle.

02/14/2026

Entrance fees for Florida State Parks are waived this weekend!

In honor of George Washington’s birthday and America250FL, Florida State Parks will offer free admission from Feb. 13 through Feb. 16, so you can experience the landscapes that shaped the nation’s earliest chapters.

You may not realize it, but San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park, Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park and more have significant ties to the Revolutionary War era.

Free admission applies to day-use only and excludes Skyway Fishing Pier State Park and Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park. All other fees, including overnight accommodations, special events, concessions and rentals from park vendors, will remain in effect.

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📍: Fort Clinch Historic State Park
📸: Courtesy of Florida Memory, 1794

💡: Plan your adventure at FloridaStateParks.org. Before you visit, check the KNOW BEFORE YOU GO section on the park’s webpage for real-time updates and helpful information.

02/06/2026

Tomorrow, Saturday Feb 7th, is our annual Camellia Festival! With the below freezing temperatures last weekend, many of the camellia blooms turned brown. But we are already seeing many of them opening back up! These camellia photos are from late in the day yesterday, so by Saturday there should be even more opened!

It’s forecasted to be a beautiful day on Saturday, so we hope you will come out to enjoy your day at the Park! In addition to our big fundraiser selling camellias, there will be live music, food vendors, educational stations throughout the park and even some sweet adoptable pups from Alaqua Animal Refuge!

Bring your folding chairs and picnic blankets, and spend your day with us!

Visit our event page for more information:

https://facebook.com/events/s/camellia-festival-2026/1373549927578165/

01/26/2026

Every day that we walk through Eden Gardens State Park there is something new to look at. So many beautiful camellia blooms to enjoy this morning and we can’t resist sharing them on Facebook for those to can’t visit as often. (Although we hope you will come see them for yourselves if you can)

We are expecting some below freezing temperatures here in Walton County, so we wanted to offer some information and advice about your camellias.

If you have any camellias that are in pots, it would be best to bring them inside or up against the house. Protecting the roots is most important but if you are able to cover the whole plant that is great too.

For camellias that are in the ground, the plant itself will be fine with the colder temperatures as the ground will insulate those roots. Unfortunately any blooms or buds that are starting to show color may turn brown if they are not covered. We have far too many camellias at the park to go around covering them all, but if you have just a couple it may be worth covering them to protect those blooms that are just starting to open.

If you can’t cover your camellias, maybe cut a few open blossoms to enjoy indoors! The good news is that any flowers buds which are still closed tight will generally survive the cold (at least the temperatures we will be experiencing here in the panhandle of Florida) and bloom after the cold passes!

01/22/2026

The Camellias love a sunny day between cold snaps! Here are some blooms that are open throughout the park today, the variety names are in the captions of each photo.

01/15/2026

Here’s a little sneak peak at some of the camellia varieties we’ll have for sale at the festival this year!

The festival is Feb 7th from 10 am to 2 pm at Eden Gardens State Park

https://facebook.com/events/s/camellia-festival-2026/1373549927578165/

01/08/2026

We are one month away from our annual Camellia Festival, but until then there are so many beautiful camellia varieties in bloom at the park right now and throughout the next two months! We hope you can make it out for the festival, but also if you are able to come sooner you will have lots of beautiful flowers to see. Here are a few photos from today with the names of each Camellia variety in the caption

12/29/2025

The camellias at Eden are looking great right now! If you have some time off and are looking for something to do, the park is open from 8am to sunset every day including holidays! The house tours will not be available on Dec 31 or Jan 1, but the rest of the park will be open!