Beautiful Montreal /// The Botanical Gardens and Olympic Stadium /// Walk with me
I had a visit from my mother and nephew last week and as we went to one of my favorite places in Montreal, The Botanical Gardens! If you have never visited it is one of the few places in the city where you can really escape and take in nature. I don't visit nearly as often as I'd like to but when I have visitors I get to temporarily be a tourist in my own city which is quite fun!
Some facts from wikipedia:
The Montreal Botanical Garden (French: Jardin botanique de Montréal) is a large botanical garden in Montreal, Quebec, Canada comprising 75 hectares (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.
WOW! One of the most important in the world!
The botanical gardens are right next to the Olympic Stadium (pictured below) which is a very oddly shaped building that was built in 1976 to host the Summer Olympics:
The various gardens are all gorgeous, one of my faves are The Alpine Gardens. These gardens are full of rugged looking terrain interspersed with pretty wildflowers and rock formations:
The gardens have lots of wonderful sculptures sprinkled around too (I believe all made by local artists):
One of my favorite parts is the greenhouse, specifically in the tropical section. They keep it very warm and humid and the aroma of all the tropical plants is to die for. I usually walk around there breathing as deeply as I can, knowing that this is probably the purest air I will ever breathe in this city :D
Another fun part of the greenhouse is the Bonsai section!
Within the gardens there is also an Insectarium which features many live creepy crawlies and also mounted specimens from around the world. There were so many beetles it made my head spin.
They also had a ton of butterflies, this was one of my favorites, I believe it is part of the family called Death's-head hawkmoth, pretty badass!
This display case was full of the most colorful beetles I've ever seen! As an artist I found this on very inspiring and it is easy to see how different cultures may have also taken inspiration from these natural patterns to dye fabric, make beads etc. The variation is absolutely stunning.
If you ever visit Montreal I strongly urge you to add The Botanical Gardens to your list of places to visit. We spent about 4 hours there and didn't even get to visit every garden, you could easily pass an entire day here and I promise you won't be disappointed!
All photos taken by me :)
I hope you had a great day with your mom and nephew! Your pictures are stunning by the way! Man, and those guys working up there on the big O, nerves of steel! The J.B is an incredible space and really worth the visit for tourists but also for locals too. I have to agree that the bonzai section is a jewel in itself. The insectarium is cool but creepy too, I must admit that just by looking at the various weird live specimens made me itchy and I kept thinking: what if a couple of them sneaked out of their enclosures ... The Atta ants were our favorites, such fascinating creatures! Great post!
I'm not a fan of bugs so the insectarium makes me feel itchy too, they had something out for the kids to play with but I stayed away, lol. Every time I go there I think about how I should visit more often, it is so peaceful!
Wow this looks like a beautiful place! The photo of the flower (4th down) is unreal, I’ve never seen one with such unique characteristics... it looks like a digital art works. One of my favorite things is the mix of sculptures in a garden setting..it like showcasing the harmonious relationship between the natural art in nature and the art made by man, something special about that. Thanks for sharing these, I really enjoyed them!
Yeah that flower is really cool it's like a natural water fountain with it's own little city of flowers inside, so pretty! Thanks llfarms, I have so many more pics but I didn't want to overwhelm the post lol.
What a beautiful place !!! The photos are incredible I loved the tree!
The bonsai trees are absolutely stunning :)
omg i love da bugggiies one!!!~ that is fascinating. it sounds wonderful, I hope you had a super fun time!!!
I took about a million photos of all the beetles/moths and butterflies, nature is so darn fascinating!
Magical! I love the tree.. I hope to visit Montreal one day and will totally seek this out if i can ever go!
I would say if you ever visit it's a must place to visit, so tranquil, great place for a picnic!
Wow really the garden looks beautiful! I would love to visit even the photos look great thanks for sharing with us
Thank you, you definitely should it's a beautiful place to hang out for a day!
This was the image that I liked the most, because you can see the diversity of beetles that there are, and the different variations in nature, really when I go to Canada I will go through this place, I loved it, and the way you relate it is excellent .
Yeah that was stunning and it is only a small part of the display case, the bigger pic didn't turn out as well because of the light reflections. I would have spent more time looking at it but there were people waiting behind me to see :D
I imagine people annoying, waiting hahahaha
Gorgeous! Now it's on our to see list. Great article.
Curation by @msp-active.