Last week I visited Montreal and their Botanic Gardens. It is a very large area of more than
190 acres on the Northeast side of the city and consists of many different gardens. There is
also a large Arboretum, with many trees.
also a large Arboretum, with many trees.
Entrance to the Gardens with impatiens, cannas, and papayas.
Montreal specializes in several flowers, and for this time of the year, Cannas and
Coneflowers. Montreal has more varieties and colors of each than I have ever seen
anywhere else. These are rich Magenta Cannas.
Yellow Sunshine Cannas. These are large, tall flowers; plants are about 5 feet high.
Variegated Cherry Red New Guinea Impatiens.
"Tiki Peach Whirl" Copperleafs. We have many Copperleafs in S. Florida, and they
range from small plants to large bushes six feet high. This is a new mini-variety.
Two varieties of Elephant Ears / Colocasia. These are gigantic plants, and make a
very nice contrast to smaller flowers.
"Tikie Peach Whirl" Copperleafs and a Papaya plant loaded with fruit, and Yellow Cannas.
As you enter the Gardens, if you look to the right, you see the Olympic Park.
This is the great ski-jump, and if you look closely, you will see one of the cable cars
climbing the structure and bringing tourists to the top for a splendid view.
The first area you see is the Rose Garden. They have 1,100 different varieties of roses,
and 10,000 separate rose bushes of every color and size. This is "Heart and Soul,"
a floribunda rose, with clusters of flowers.
"Heart 'n Soul" Floribunda Rose
The Rose Garden continues on the right, but I want to turn off to the left and visit the
Chinese Garden first. The entrance is marked by this very unusual large stone, and
below it is "Lemon Ball Sedum," a new ground cover plant.
You wander through a forest and then come upon this first courtyard in the Chinese Garden.
Lions guard the entrance, and lanterns light up at night. It is constructed in the style
of a 17th century Ming Dynasty Garden.
of a 17th century Ming Dynasty Garden.
There is a large lake and a number of buildings in the Chinese Gardens. This is the
Friendship Hall, and the lake is just on the other side.
"Good Luck Dragon" inside Friendship Hall. This was designed by an artist so that the
scales of the dragon are each a wish by a visitor. The two ladies are writing down their
wishes and hopes. (See below.)
The "scales" on the Good Luck Dragon.
Moongate in one of the courtyards.
Part of the lake and another building.
The Chinese Garden was preparing for the "Lantern Festival," which is held in
September. Hundreds of lanterns are created with iron armatures and a nylon fabric
stretched over it and lights inside. At night these are all illuminated to create a
magical environment. This is the Flying Fish.
In the lake, you can see many lanterns (of fish, fishermen, children, birds, frogs, etc.)
being set up.
A bed of Black-eyed Susans leads to the next building and courtyard, which houses
the collection of bonsai trees.
Panda Lanterns on the hill.
Bonsai Trees in the courtyard. Some of these are 90 years old.
A Dragon Lantern
Crane Lanterns could be found in a number of places, including the Rose Garden.
These will all be illuminated at night and lead you through the Gardens.
A group of Crane Lanterns and lots of roses.
In the forest there was a multitude of red lanterns, which will be lighted.
A bed of pale blue flowers provided contrast.
Chartreuse Zinnias
"Touch of Class" Hybrid Tea Rose
"Carmela" Hybrid Tea Rose
"Cosmos Fairy Tale" Floribunda Rose, clusters of flowers.
"Electron" Hybrid Tea Rose
"Walking on Sunshine" Floribunda Rose. Each cluster had flowers in a variety of
shades, from pale yellow to intense bright yellow.
"Good as Gold" Hybrid Tea Rose
"Good as Gold" Hybrid Tea Rose
Rudbeckia
Japanese Pink Lotus in the Japanese Garden. It is more than a foot in diameter.
The pod on the right is what it looks like after it blooms.
After you walk through another small forest behind the Japanese Garden, you come out
onto the vast English Meadow, which is filled with flowers from spring through fall.
These are Black-eyed Susans.
The English Meadow and Brook. Those are hosta on the right.
Intense Blue Meadow Flowers
A visitor to the Gardens, with Black-eyed Susans, Orange Cannas, and Elephant Ears.
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