Montreal, Part 2

On our third day in Montreal we decided to visit the Botanical Gardens. We were expecting something beautiful, as most botanical gardens are, but were totally unprepared for what greeted us.  First of all it is one of the world's finest and largest, covering over 191 acres with 30 thematic gardens, greenhouses and a vast arboretum. What we also didn't know was that it was hosting Mosaicultures Internationales, a competition that was held in Montreal for the first time in ten years.  I think it must be like bidding for the Olympics.  This year there were exhibits from about 20 countries, responding to the theme "Land of Hope: Preserving Biodiversity"
I took so many pictures, but none of them do it justice.  Many of the sculptures were enormous and all were made entirely of living plants.  What follows is a small sampling.

This gigantic bird tree, made of living plants, is 52 feet high and 56 feet wide at the crown and weighs 100 metric tons. Its 14 branches hold 56 birds, each one an endangered species. It has an internal and external irrigation system

This gives little more detail.  It was hard to photograph.

This exhibit was called "The Man Who Planted Trees". The worker was meticulously replacing some plants in the front of the sculpture.  We saw this a few times throughout the exhibit, where workers were either pruning of replacing to keep them in perfect form.

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There were several exhibits with horses.  Their manes were made of plant material that blew in the wind.

Micky knows that you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find the  prince.

This serpent twisted around and even went under the path. this only shows a small part of it.

This "Mother Earth" was one of my favorites.  Again, it was huge! 

There were several exhibits of gorillas, monkeys, chimpanzees, etc.  They were all life size and made from various types of plant material.

We spent the better part of the day there and didn't even see the Japanese Gardens or the Chinese Gardens, which are supposed to be world class.  If you're going to Montreal this summer, be sure to put this on your itinerary.