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Montreal Botanical Garden
One of the nicest things about traveling is the part that serendipity plays in our adventures. It was an accidental discovery that brought me to the Montreal Botanical Garden while exploring Montreal, Canada's largest city. It took only one visit to convince me that this beautiful arboretum should be on every gardener's must-see list.
Brother Marie-Victorin, a brother of the Christian Schools and president of the Biology Society of Montreal, proposed a beautiful botanical garden for Montreal in celebration of the city's approaching three hundredth anniversary. "You need to give a gift, a royal gift to the City. Fill her arms to overflowing with the roses and lilies of the field!"
This 183-acre arboretum, founded in 1931, follows that advice. It now contains 30 theme gardens, 10 exhibition greenhouses and a collection of more than 21,000 plant species and varieties. It is distinguished from other arboreta by several features: the largest Chinese Garden outside of China; an Insectarium, which chronicles the part that insects play in our biosphere; a wooden Tree House, which is an interactive museum devoted to the importance of trees; and the new Garden of Innovations that showcases the latest plant varieties and trends in landscaping. Conveniently situated close to the center of the city, the Montreal Botanical Garden is a fascinating place attracting more than one million visitors yearly.
But it's not just a place of beauty that enriches Montreal's cultural life. It's a serious scientific institution devoted to education. The University of Montreal's Plant Biology Research Institute is affiliated with the garden, and research is carried on in plant genetics, ecology, biotechnology and other plant fields.
Through the seasons
Each season brings its own particular beauty. During spring, bulbs lift showy heads, followed by flowering plum and apple trees, brilliant rhododendrons, magnolias, wisteria and heather. In summer, traditional perennials take over, and peonies, irises and hemerocallis fill the flowery brook. Water plants mature, roses prosper, the bonsai and penjing move outdoors, and the Butterfly House is full. Vegetable harvest coincides with bright autumn foliage, chrysanthemums, asters and sedum. Cross-country skiing, bird-watching, tree identification and Chinese ice sculptures fill outdoor winter visits, while greenhouses offer respite from the cold.
Let’s take a tour
Hovering over the entrance to the Garden is the 574-foot inclined ski tower which was built for the 1976 Olympics. The administration building is the central point for sightseeing reached by entering the main gate beyond the reception gardens filled with bedding annuals.
Sightsee by train
The most efficient way to see the entire garden is via the free miniature sightseeing train as it winds its way through designated stops until it reaches the forested area. Two-thirds of the botanical garden is arboretum acreage where 7,000 specimens of 3,000 species of trees and shrubs are growing. The train passes mature hardwood maple, beech, yellow birch, hickory and american linden trees, and softwood alders and willows weeping over a calm pond. Soon the conifer area, which alone holds 1,000 species of spruce, and the hedge and shrub area become visible. Along the route, glimpses of the Chinese, Japanese, Rose, Shade and Children's Vegetable Garden appear, all of which can be explored on foot at a more leisurely pace.
Greenhouses
The exhibition greenhouses near the entrance become a source of green comfort during the long snow-filled winters. Large indoor colorful holiday spectacles contrast with the harsh outdoor climate. Volunteer guides roam the greenhouses ready to answer questions about rooms filled with rain forest tropical plants, blooming orchids, aroids and gesneriads. The lush greenhouses contrast with arid ones, filled with African and American desert plants, a Mexican villa where cycads grow, and finally to an elegant Asian gallery filled with ancient bonsai and penjing plants.
Flower beds
Beyond the main building are a series of 17 formal exhibition gardens with rectangular flower beds edged in boxwood, one of the oldest features of the garden. Annual and perennial gardens for easy viewing follow one another. On a summer day lobelias, ferny dwarf marigolds and cleome bob their heads in a gentle breeze, while nearby a wall fountain trickles and water lilies bathe in its dewy moisture. Visitors crane their necks to photograph a pergola overflowing with hanging baskets of impatiens, `Martha Washington' geraniums and agapanthus. Hardy perennials grow in formal beds where their cultivar names are prominently displayed. Blooming in glorious provision in midsummer are white platycodon (Platycodon albus), achillea, Monarda `Adam,' liatris, lythrum, echinops, anthemis, verbascum and helenium, all of which are able to survive Montreal's cold climate.
Adjacent to this area is the new Garden of Innovation. An annual replacement of new cultivars will showcase the latest trends in plants while maintaining the overall shrub structure. This is a competitive design project by the landscape architecture students studying at the University of Montreal. They will also create a courtyard for bird enthusiasts as an example of city gardening.
Flower & Garden Magazine, 09/01/00 by Adele Kleine
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