Thursday, August 8, 2013

Mosaïcultures



On our way home from eastern Québec, we stopped at the Montreal Botanical Garden where there is a special exhibition of monumental sculptures made with plants. It is a bit like three dimensional carpet bedding. It is, in fact, an international competition with works by teams from North America, Europe and Asia. Some of the sculptures are huge. The frog below is one of the smallest ones.


 At first I thought it was unfortunate that teams of gardeners were trimming some of the sculptures while we were there, but, in fact, the gardeners give you a sense of scale.

In my opinion, the best in the show is "The man man who planted trees". He was being watered when I took the picture. He is holding a small oak tree, but, in this photo, seems to be holding the gardener .



There are several insects, especially bees.
This is a Chinese entry.


Some of the displays are not made up of live plants, such as these wild boars and a mare and her foal.

Wild boars
The mare and her foal

It was a weekday, but there was quite a crowd.
There are several groups of horses.

You could get closer to this bison and get a better look at the plants that were used. The mane was ajuga, and the hair seemed some kind of sedge.

A bison


A water buffalo
Sheep and, by the fountain, a goat
A panda
The following one is the Green Man


You felt as if you had been transported into a rather sentimental cartoon world. However, the displays were very impressive. This is a small sample, there are about 50 of these sculptures. Of all the animals, I like best the shaggy dog of the man who planted trees. You felt he was about to walk away!


The dog of the man who planted trees


7 comments:

  1. Wow! Those are really amazing! What a shame I'm too far away to visit, so thanks for the photos. I love the wooden horses and the man who planted trees the best. They're wonderful!

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  2. They really are remarkable. I wouldn't mind a couple of those dotted around our garden! I seem to recall seeing this kind of thing before and I could swear that it was Montreal. Is it an annual exhibition?

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    1. You might very well have seen it in Montreal. It is a competition held every three year and I think the last time it was in Montreal was 2003.

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  3. Alain, funny that our visits were so close! Sorry I missed you! It was an amazing show, though like you I was sorry we didn't have time (or energy) to see much of the rest of the garden.

    There are some nice mosaicultures at Parc Marie-Victorin in Kingsey Falls, Quebec, though not so grand as some of these. It's a nice garden to visit. Sheri

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  4. What an amazing exhibition - I think my favourites are the same as yours. There are some talented people out there.

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  5. Wow, absolutely brilliant. I've not seen anything like this before, apart from a few small sculptured plants around town. They look so real. Each one is so unique in it's own way, so I can't even say that one was better than the other.
    I would love to visit this place one day, I just love seeing things that are different.
    I wonder how long it took to make one of these, and how many people were involved. Great post.

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