text: Visiting the Botanical Gardens was one of the highlights of my Montreal trip this August The Chinese Garden is absolutely beautiful and features gorgeous architecture waterfalls rock formations and a live crane I spent over an hour wandering in this garden alone The rose garden is also exquisite as are the lotuses and the bonsais in the Japanese garden Make sure you charge your camera battery This place is great for taking pics The indoor gardens are gorgeous too with lots of exotic orchids and other beautiful tropical flowers The staff is helpful and unobtrusive The grounds are well maintained and many areas have bathrooms available My only complaint is that the gift shop is rather small and really did not offer much in terms of souvenirs I was hoping for more magnets or pictures of flowers or the grounds but there is not much here aside from a few keychains knickknacks and maple syrup and candies This place is definitely worth a visit just up from the Pie IX metro stop