Ring-tailed Lemurs – Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal, Botanical Garden, Montréal, Québec

Mosaiculture is a refined horticultural art that involves creating and mounting a mosaic, living sculpture made primarily from plants with colourful foliage (generally annuals, and occasionally perennials). Mosaiculture differs from topiary, which involves shrubs and trees to create different shapes. By contrast mosaiculture is a complex art form combining sculpture, colour matching and horticulture.

The base of a mosaiculture creation consists of a steel or aluminum frame wrapped in metal mesh. The forms are filled with earth and planted with flowers, ivies and grasses whose foliage provided texture and colour. Interior watering systems and growing medium are added to allow the flowers to last through the summer.

The Mosaïcultures Internationales competition was founded in 2000 by Lise Cormier after her visit to China: this is where Lisa saw an enchanting 40-feet-high sculpture of 3 doves and was instantly inspired to bring the idea back home. Considered the world’s most prestigious competition of horticultural art, the 2013 edition of the competition used more than three million flowers. The flowers were raised in greenhouses throughout Québec, and then shipped to the gardens in May. Some 50 works graced the 2.2 km circuit through the enchanting grounds of the Botanical Garden. The theme of the exhibition was "Land of Hope." About 200 of the world’s most talented horticultural artists took part in this international competition, representing 20 countries. Entries came from cities in countries as far as Turkey and Uganda, with China and Japan heavily represented.

Madagascar is one of the most richly biodiverse places on the planet. Isolated from the continent at the end of the Cretaceous period approximately 85 million years ago, at a time when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth, this country is home to species that are unique worldwide. Lemurs are part of these species that are considered endemic to the island of Madagascar. There are five distinct families in all, divided into 15 genera, then into 103 species and subspecies! The lemurs represented here are of the ring-tailed species, considered near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The animals' small size made these pieces extremely difficult to render as mosaiculture.