Montreal International Mosaicultures Exhibiton

"Mosaïcultures Internationales® is at once an international mosaiculture competition, an exhibition of horticultural art and a chance for the representatives from parks, gardens and green spaces around the world to exchange ideas. All works presented must represent something of the participant’s culture while responding to a predefined theme and complying with the principles of sustainable development. Mosaïcultures Internationales®, a triennial competition, also offers participants a chance to promote their specific attractions."

These sculptures are amazing and larger then life, it was so fascinating to see what each country had come up with to represent it's culture. The exhibition was made up of 48 entries, some were huge, some were scenes with multiple sculptures, some were small and only had one or two sculptures. It was such a wonderful show to see, and we were so lucky to have been in Montreal while it was still showing, we got there on the second to last day it was open!

Canada - Montreal - The Man who Planted Trees

Belgium - Province of Hainaut - The Insects' Garden

China - Shanghai - A True Story

This sculpture from China, entitled A True Story, also acted as a memorial for a young girl who sacrificed her life for a crane that had fallen in a lake and would have drowned if the girl hadn't swam in after it.  It was a beautiful piece, one of my favorites.

Chile - Easter Island - Guardians of the Island

England - Sally Mathews - The Boars of Sally Island

Canada - Montreal - Spirits of the Wood, The Green Man

Canada - Montreal - Spirits of the Wood, Cernunnos

England - Heather Jansch - Hope and Odyssey

Canada - Montreal - Mother Earth

This entry was by far my favorite, everything about it was GORGEOUS.  I especially loved the expression the gardeners were able to portray on her face, so beautiful and serene.

I thought I would include one photo to show the kind of crowds we were battling, it was ca-razy crowded!  The admission line that we saw as we were leaving had to of been about a 2-3 hour wait to get in, so it only got more and more crowded as the day went on.  I'm always happy to see people get out and enjoy beautiful things.  This picture is also good to show how ginormous these sculptures were, they were seriously unreal.

Africa - Uganda - Gorilla's at Risk

China - Beijing - Planting Plane Trees to Attract the Phoenix

Japan - Okinawa - Small Clownfish and Anemone

Canada - Montreal - Bird Tree

This entry was probably my second favorite of the entire show.  It was so detailed and was filled with so many different kinds of birds, it was hard to capture it all in photos.

Montreal Botanical Garden

This past September I went on a tour of the Hudson Valley with my sweet parents.  The tour started in Montreal, so we flew up a day early and decided to spend our free day at the Montreal Botanical Gardens.  These gardens are beautiful and so impressive, they are 190 acres of thematic gardens and greenhouses. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008 as it is considered to be one of the most important botanical gardens in the world due to the extent of its collections and facilities

There were two special exhibits going on that we were so lucky to see.  The first was, The Magic of Lanterns show in the Chinese gardens.  There were hundreds of elaborate Chinese lanterns set up all over the gardens and they were stunning!

We didn't have time to stay and see what they look like all lit up at night so, I pulled some images from the internet to show how they look, pretty awesome!