Garden of Useful Plants

Of cabbages and kings

Henry Teuscher was looking forward to a well-deserved rest once he had finished drawing up the plans for the Botanical Garden in the fall of 1936. As fate would have it, though, he suddenly found himself with more than enough manpower, thanks to a public works program for the unemployed, strongly backed by Premier Duplessis. So throngs of labourers set to work building, shovelling, and levelling the ground, all under the designer's watchful eye. All along Pie-IX Boulevard they created the exhibition gardens, one of which is this Garden of Useful Plants.

Jardin botanique de Montréal (Archives)

Construction site: horses and carts.

Jardin botanique de Montréal (Archives)

Jardin botanique de Montréal (Archives)
Description

A Garden of earthly delights

This showpiece garden began drawing thousands of visitors shortly after it was completed in 1937 - up to 15,000 some Sundays!

Here visitors could learn about edible plants grouped according to their useful parts, from fruit to roots, leaves and stems. Other sections presented plants valued for other purposes: textiles, tobacco, forage and oil seeds. The garden's theme has remained unchanged over the years.

Jardin botanique de Montréal (Archives)
Description

Economic Garden - 1945

Garden of Useful Plants : Part 2

Previous stop of the historical path:
Perennial Garden

Next stop of the historical path:
Garden of Innovations

Construction of the Botanical Garden virtual exhibit [Jardin botanique de Montréal]