Published on June 4, 2009 - The Montréal Botanical Garden is always a breath of fresh air and great source of inspiration. A true oasis in the heart of the city, this magnificent greenery boasts more than 22,000 plant species and cultivars, 10 exhibition greenhouses and thirty or more thematic gardens, along with an exciting calendar of activities. Which is probably why the Montréal Botanical Garden is one of the most important, if not the most beautiful, public gardens on the planet…
The founder of the Botanical Garden, Brother Marie-Victorin, would have been proud of its success today. All the more so this year, with the unveiling of Under the Cuban Sun, an exhibition which retraces the seven trips he made between 1938 and 1944 to study the stunning biodiversity of the then little-known island of Cuba. Texts, photos, videos, hand-coloured glass plates and handicrafts depicting the lush and exotic diversity of Cuba’s flora and fauna are just some of the many features of the exhibition, which gives visitors the chance to time travel back in this avant-garde ecologist’s footsteps.
If you’re in Montréal this fall, don’t miss the Magic of the Lanterns, which lights up the Chinese Garden the entire month of October. No less than a thousand silk lanterns, handcrafted by artists from Shanghai, create a magical nighttime ambiance in this gorgeous garden. The tradition, dating back over a thousand years in China, lets visitors discover different facets of the Chinese culture each year.
While you’re there, make sure to stop by the Great Pumpkin Ball, a giant exhibition of pumpkins that have been painted and decorated for Hallowe’en by the talented hands of schoolchildren, families or pumpkin lovers of all ages.
From February to April, the Main Exhibition Greenhouse will be host to smaller, but no less colourful, guests during Butterflies Go Free, an exhibition that has been dazzling spectators big and small for the past 13 years. The lovely lime-green luna moth, the polyphemus moth with owl-eye wingspots or the mighty-spanned cecropia moth are just some of the many winged wonders that are released in the greenhouse, which is transformed into an immense aviary for the occasion.
Montréal Botanical Garden
Magic of the Lanterns
Great Pumpkin Ball
Butterflies Go Free
