The "Mother Earth" sculpture by the Montr??al team of Lise Cormier illustrates what Chief Seattle said to U.S. President Franklin Pierce when they met: "We will go on the reserve. We will sell you our land because you have the gun and we won't survive that. But you don't understand anything about the environment and nature. The buffalo in the prairies are our brothers and the same thing for the deer. The eagle is our brother, the water in the river is the blood of our ancestors." The head of the Montreal Botanical Garden told Cormier that some people cry when they see Mother Earth.
Photo: Guy Boily.
For more photography go to www.mosaiculturesinternationales.ca/en/pressroom

The Mosa??cultures Internationales de Montr??al 2013 at the Montreal Botanical Garden (June 22 through Sept. 29) is the venue this year for "mosa??cultures," presentations of horticultural designs as landscape art. The event is expected to attract a million visitors to see in person the amazing sculptures that teams from around the world have crafted out of some 22,000 species of plants.

Mosa??cultures is a French word meaning sculpturing with a variety of colorful plants, as opposed to topiary, which is trimming a one texture, one color shrub. Mosa??cultures came into being at the end of the 19th century.

Lise Cormier founded Mosa??cultures Internationales de Montr??al in 1998. In 2000, as director of parks for Montreal, she enlisted the help of Montreal's Park, Gardens and Green Spaces Department to put on the first completion. This year's competition, the fifth iteration, has entries from nearly 100 cities around the world. Countries participating include Belgium, China, France, Japan, Madagascar, Mexico, Turkey, South Korea, Spain and the U.S.

The "All in a Row" offering from Madagascar reflects the island's rich biodiversity. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers lemurs, which are endemic to Madagascar, the world's most endangered mammals.

Who makes these amazing plant sculptures? It's a team effort of professionals: horticulturalists, landscape architects, welders, designers, and even structural engineers for the large pieces. The landscape architect and designer create the design; a sculptor or welder makes the frame; and then the horticulturist plants the exhibit and maintains it.

Mosa??culture is catching on. In Beijing, there's a mosa??culture institute that employs 100 people. Botanical gardens in the U.S. are expressing interest. The Atlanta Botanical Garden has a small mosa??culture exhibition, and is participating in the Montreal competition. Lise Cormier and her team did 14 exhibits for the conservatory at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Currently, the most votes at the Mosa??cultures Internationales de Montr??al have gone to "Mother Earth" (17 percent) and the "Tree of Birds" (15 percent).