After attending the annual Garden Writers Symposium in Quebec City a week and a half ago, I arranged for an 8 hour stopover in Montreal on my way home to see the Mosaicultures Internationales at the Montreal Botanical Garden, which is one of the greatest horticultural art exhibitions in the world. I visited the botanic garden about 19 years ago, but it was mid-winter and we only saw the glass houses, so I was rather overdue for a repeat visit.. and what better time than when the Mosaiculture exhibition is on!?
First stop was Adonis - a mid-east grocery store/bakery/restaurant that was on our way to the botanic garden. We were tempted to forget about the gardens and just stay on their sunny deck and eat for the 8 hour stopover - delish! Check out some of the yummy food above and below. I just had to share these!
Our big mistake was not buying tickets for the gardens in advance. Although the event runs from June 22 to Sept 29, and we arrived almost two months after the exhibit began, the ticket line was over an hour long. By the time we entered the gardens, there were thousands of people already crowded around the more than 50 incredible living sculptures that are arranged along a 2 km route in the botanical garden. These magical creations are the result of hundreds of experts from 20 countries. It was a combination of luck and contortionism that I managed to get photos with few people in them!!
All in all, I took almost 500 photos, and we spent hours ogling the more than 3 million plants and flowers that were used to create the collection of sculptures. Here is a glimpse at some of the highlights of the exhibition.
For more information on this exhibition, please visit the botanic garden
website.
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| I'll take 2 of each!! |
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| Or maybe a few cakes?? |
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| Ack! A cake made from gelato.. |
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Ok, arrived at the gardens.. but there was a MASSIVE line up.
We managed to download tickets on our phone from the
website and after waiting 15 min were able to skip the ticket line
and go right in through the turnstile. phew! Otherwise it was over an hour wait! |
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| Lemurs! |
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| One of my favourite displays - 'The Man Who Planted Trees' |
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| The shaggy dog - made from grass |
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| Also part of the same garden - look at the flowers! |
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| A very hungry caterpillar - and ladybug! |
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| This was about 20 feet tall! |
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| A lotus bud |
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| Lotus flower |
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| Lotus seedpod |
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| I also loved this display - huge in its scope! |
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This entry came from Japan - merges man
and nature |
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| A woodland wonder |
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A few of the gardens were being
watered or maintained, an aspect
that annoyed many of the visitors, but
I loved seeing how these amazing creations
were take care of. |
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| It was SO hot - I wished they would water me! |
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| Mother Earth. Magnificent! |
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| Add caption |
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Loading the truck for farmer's market. One of the last of
the exhibits in the show.
In a word - spectacular! |
