Montreal Botanic Garden

So, I has my “plant fix” today at the Montreal Botanic Garden featured in these photos.  I’m in Vermont giving two talks for the Summer Meeting of the Green Works / Vermont Nursery & Landscape Association in Bristol, VT.  Vermont is absolutely beautiful and I can imagine the fall color is second to none.  Staying in Burlington prompted me to make a run for our Northern border and drive two hours to Montreal.  It was smooth sailing both ways although driving in construction-ridden, downtown Montreal was not much fun.  My rental car speedometer did not have kilometers per hour so I had to guess what the equivalent was in MPH.  I think I must have sped the entire time after reviewing the math later….  Regardless, the garden was amazing and I hiked all 190 acres and wished I had more time.  The garden featured one of the best shrub collections I’ve ever seen as well as an impressive alpine garden, perennial garden, lots of edibles and plenty of “flower power”.  These are a fraction of my images but show some highlights which also include the greenhouses and an “Insectarium”.  Dedicated in 1931, this garden is considered one of the most important in the world due to extensive collections.  There were lots of people about and 98% of the conversations were in French.  I was asked questions in French at least a dozen times and had to explain that I only spoke English which prompted a few heavy eye rolls…I’m not ready to generalize that French Canadians are snobby but I think I ran in to a few today.

This structure (above) had me puzzled and I later found out it is called the Montreal Tower and is the tallest, inclined (45 degrees) tower in the world at 540 feet.  I could see this tower from the botanic garden all day and if you look closely, you can three guys in the upper left of the tower on cables as they were working on repairs or something way up there!  Visitors can go up in that tower for a view but I passed!