Montreal Botanical Garden

Founded in 1931 after years of campaigning by Brother Marie-Victorin, a Christian Brother and botanist, the garden covers about seventy-five hectares with around twenty-two thousand plant species across thirty thematic gardens and ten greenhouses. The Chinese garden, the largest outside Asia, was built in 1991 by artisans from Shanghai using materials shipped from China; the Japanese garden has a tea pavilion and a substantial bonsai collection, some trees centuries old. The First Nations Garden covers plants used by Indigenous peoples of Quebec. Each autumn the Chinese garden hosts Gardens of Light, a lantern festival with silk lanterns made in Shanghai.

History

The garden was founded in 1931, at the height of the Great Depression, by Mayor Camillien Houde after years of campaigning by Brother Marie-Victorin, author of the Flore laurentienne; Henry Teuscher designed the grounds and Lucien F. Kéroack the Art Deco administration building. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2008, and with the Biodome, the Insectarium and the planetarium it forms the city's Space for Life museum district (Wikipedia, Montreal Botanical Garden).

The main sights

• The Chinese garden - the largest outside Asia, built by Shanghai artisans.
• The Japanese bonsai - a major collection with trees of great age.
• The First Nations Garden - plants used by Quebec's Indigenous peoples.
• Gardens of Light - an autumn lantern festival with Shanghai-made silk lanterns.

When to go

May to October for the outdoor gardens; the greenhouses run year-round. Gardens of Light runs September to October and is the busiest period, needing timed tickets.

Good to know

Outdoor gardens are bare from November to April, when only greenhouses are worth the ticket. The site is large with considerable walking. Lantern festival evenings are crowded and ticketed.

Nearby

Olympic Park adjoins; Jean-Talon Market lies west.

Key facts