The Montreal Botanical Garden, More Than A Horticulture Study Place
Montreal Botanical Garden was initially founded in 1931 by Brother Marie-Victorin to serve two functions – a shelter for endangered plant species and an educational tool for the general crowd and horticulture students. It must have not come to the mind of Marie-Victorin that the Montreal Botanical Garden will become a tourist destination that even locals are very fond of.
The things to do in Canada are huge but the Montreal Botanical Garden is more known to the locals as Jardin botanique de Montréal. Annually, more than a million people visit this 183-acre garden simply because it is gorgeous. More complicated reasons as to why people frequently visit the garden is because they want to see or study the vast collection of plant species that the botanical garden has – all 21,000 species of plants coming from all around the world. Of these 21,000 plant species, 10,000 are hybrids resulting from years of genetic engineering.
Traveling, the one million annual visitors of the garden should be enough to convince you that a stopover to this garden is one of the best things to do in Montreal. If this is enough reason for you, then perhaps the saying “to see is to believe” will apply. Because when you see the wide-ranging collection of plants and flowers in the garden, you will be blown away.
Aroids, Begonias, Bonsais, Penjings, Bromeliads, Cacti, Succulents, Crabapples, Cycads, Ferns, Lilacs, Lotus, Orchids, and Gesneriads are among the few plants grown at the Montreal Botanical Garden. With more than a hundred caretakers, the garden grows all 21,000 plant species under great care.
The botanical garden is open all throughout the year, regardless of the year’s season. The caretakers are able to do this by growing plants and flowers according to their seasons. In the months of June and July through October, for example, Annuals and Asters are in full bloom. The cold months of December bring forth Christmas Cacti and Cyclamens. Begonias, Bromeliads, Gesneriads, Orchids, and Penjings are the only plants you’ll be seeing at the garden all year long.
The Montreal Botanical Garden has come a long way by becoming an attraction above everything else. What its visitors do not know is that they are contributing to a better cause of maintaining the garden with their entrance fees, therefore assisting in the preservation of many endangered plant species.
