Thanks to Maria Fleming (a.k.a. Quiltingmamma) for sharing photos from a lovely weekend last September.
"Two hours from Ottawa is the Montreal Botanical Gardens. It's 190 acres features a large arboretum as well as Chinese, Japanese, rose, First Nations and Alpine gardens. There are several conservatories, potagers, a butterfly garden, Insectarium – more than enough to keep you busy for at least 2 days. At times there are special international shows – like Mosaiculture in 2013 – and in September they light the gardens and have the Chinese Gardens lit by lanterns. Anyone curled up thinking of Spring or Summer garden trips should consider a visit to the St Lawrence area of Quebec. A few miles further SE of Quebec City has the reknowned Reford Gardens to visit. Until then, I wanted to share some of the glories of a September weekend."
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Comments
Maria: What a stunning garden. I love the first picture. So calming. I wish my house could look out over a view like that. I am glad everyone is sharing these great garden photos to get us through the winter.
The photos are all terrific. My favorite is the massive but delicately balanced rock formation in the next to last photo. The floral arrangement is elegant in it's simplicity. If you are ever in the Wash. D.C area the National Arboretum is a great place to visit & has an outstanding Bonsai collection. Thank you for the photos & good luck, Joe
Hi Maria, I too love that water feature. Sounds like a great garden trip, I just took notes to add to all the places I will visit in retirement. If you want to travel to New England, check out Hollister House and White Flower Farm and if you can travel further south, a must see is Wave Hill.
Maria, I will echo the others that I am grateful to have these beautiful photos to get us through the winter! Some of the photos remind me of our Longwood Gardens(10 minutes from my house)! Road trip anyone? Stay at my house for free!
Be careful what you wish for Rhonda. I might be showing up at your door with hundreds of other people from around the world, to whom you have just issued a generous invitation! :)
Road trip!
Who wants to go? I'll drive. Keep the light on for us Rhonda. :) Vikki in VA
Longwood, on my list - I'd join the road trip!
Looks like a wonderful public garden and that water feature definitely evokes a "Yowza, what a beauty" reaction from me. Love the dramatic rock formation also and do you recall....are the puffs of chartreusy green that surround it a kind of moss? or what?
Yes, the gardens are a beauty and the pond with waterfalls is quite a good size with more than on water 'feature'. I can't recall off the top of my head what the chartreuse was, but I remember my response to it. Moss makes sense, but it looks like there is leaf. I'll check some other photos when I get home.
Meander1, I'm home and I did take closer photos of the chartreuse plants. Scotch moss.
Thanks for checking back in. Yes, the "puffs" of moss gave a very pleasing effect.
I want to thank you, Maria, from the bottom of my heart. Literally. I think my blood pressure actually just dropped to normal for the first time in decades! So very beautiful. From the bonsai to the ikebana to the standing stone: spectacular. Even the vegetables are beautiful. Montreal has been on our list for years. This is a great reminder. Les Quatre Vents is somewhere in that large general vicinity as well, isn't it? Thanks!
Well, Tim, I am happy to be able to contribute to your physical health. It was very hard to limit the number of photos and I see Susan was pretty generous with the uploads today.
Les Quatre Vents is not that close to Montreal. It is even further east than Quebec City, but 'garden season' is also whale (and birding) season along the St Lawrence so worth making a 10 - 14 day road trip. Fly into Montreal, train to Quebec City picking up a rental car there, then drive east along the south shore visiting the unique little Quebec towns, past Rimouski (if you are a birder, stopping at the key birding spots along the way) to Reford Gardens. In the summer they have an international outdoor art exhibit into September. Take the ferry across the St. Lawrence and head west doing some whale watching in Tadoussac and up the Sagenay River. Les Quatre Vents is about half way between Tadoussac and Quebec City on the north shore. Fly out from QC.
Thanks, Maria. I'm copying your response and saving it for reference. Reford (Jardin de Métis) sounded familiar. I had actually done some research on them because of their international garden festival. Honestly, I think I had plotted an unfulfilled vacation scenario similar to what you have laid out. Thanks!
Tim, I have many unfulfilled vacation scenarios, so I can relate - but life is short - start ticking them off. The US has so many garden conservancies and interesting places to visit, it can be hard to bother with a border - though you'll get more bang for your buck at the moment.
Although it's be quite a few years since we spent two different vacations in British Columbia, I have to say that the border crossing *into* Canada is such a nice, pleasant and friendly experience. Coming back into the States, even as a citizen?: not so nice!
Now this is a wonder filled place to visit! Thanks Maria for sharing this with us! I so love that big rock! Oh and those big blue pots are to die for! Some day i will venture over there!
Love it~ Thanks for sharing. Superb opening photo- and the night photo is WONDERFUL! Hope I get to visit there someday~!
Thank you Maria! Great photos, snippets of everything to whet the appetite for more! The trip you have suggested for Tim sounds like a winner. I'll make a note of it too. I hope you are emerging unscathed from the recent deep freeze.
GrannyMay, thanks for the 'warm' wishes. I hibernated through the cold snap quilting, but then it was followed by 20 inches of snow in 24 hours. more snow today, but a 50C degree warmer Saturday than last week. GPOD has definitely been helping to distract from the wintery wonderland.
Do try the trip some time. It's a lovely rural area most of the time, and the cities are quite manageable though Montreal does tend to go on forever (not as bad as DC and its bedroom cities, though)
When I lived in Toronto I managed 3 driving trips out eastward, the longest being a family camping trip all the way to PEI. It would be interesting to revisit now, around 40 years later, stopping at all the public gardens along the way . Driving the whole distance, now that my start point is Vancouver Island, would be quite a challenge.
I've done the Halifax to Victoria 'commute' a few times for moves, but taking time would allow visits to cultivated and natural greenery wonderlands. There is so much to see in natural wonders and the gardens would be fascinating given our wide range of growing zones. A challenge, but hopefully retirement provides the gift of time.
Yes, it would be a fascinating trip. I drove from Toronto for the move here and enjoyed it immensely, though our focus was seeing the country, not checking out the gardens.
Tim, come anytime !!! Seriously!
Lovely photos of a beautiful botanical garden. The colors, shapes, textures, design are abundantly impressive. Thanks for sharing and outlining a detailed vacation possibility. Sounds like more than a few of us are saving your recommendations!
Thanks, Maria, for these amazing shots of the Montreal Botanical Garden. Since my son and his family recently moved there, it is exciting to see this beautiful garden that we will surely be visiting. You captured the beauty very well, especially that rock with the moss(?) around it. The Gingko bonsai intrigues me, too, as we just acquired a dwarf Gingko last summer that we are growing in a pot, and while it's not a true bonsai, it's our version of one:)
I wish that all of you could have been at the NW Flower and Garden Show this week. It was so well put together and so full that I do not have even one photo to share. It was also very nice to meet Susan and the others from Fine Gardening.
Oh my goodness a Ginkgo Bonsai! Never met a Bonsai I didn't like. Thanks for sharing these beauties. Vikki in VA
VikkiB, I am not a big fan of Bonsai, but these were wonderful. Some truly amazing specimens in teeny tiny packages. I was also amazed at the age of these. My vague memory thinks some are over 100 years old, but at least 60+ years. These, the first water photo, the Ikebana are all in the quite large Japanese Garden. One has to stroll through that several times to absorb all the treasures.
Bring it!
I only have 2 guest BRs! Who will sleep with Tim?
Thank you for these wonderful photos. I went to the Montreal Botanical Garden many years ago and I was completely blown away by their vegetable garden, it was beautiful! I see that you included a photo of the kale. So orderly. And a photo of an orchid, too - a vanda. Thanks so much!
We're heading to Longwood next weekend, Rhonda, to see the orchid exhibit. Have you been?
Cynthia: You are in for a great time. The displays throughout the conservatory are stunning. See my post on GPOD from last week (if you haven't already)
Gorgeous water feature and love the purple orchid!
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