By Gordon Lambie
The art of mosaiculture, although not exactly new, has been growing in popularity across Quebec and Canada in recent years. With the arrival of summer, the signature living sculptures have already started to turn up in different parts of the Eastern Townships, to the delight of many still largely interested in spending their free time outdoors.
The name mosaiculture blends together the idea of mosaic, the art of creating a larger image by combining a large collection of small pieces (often glass or ceramic), and horticulture, the practice of growing plants. The artworks described as mosaiculture, therefore, are large-scale artworks made out of a collection of smaller plants.
Within the Eastern Townships, both the City of Sherbrooke and the Parc Marie-Victorin in Kingsey Falls have been developing expertise around the best practices of the art form for close to three decades.
“It is very complex,” said Joanne Patenaude, the Horticulture Director at the Parc Marie-Victorin, explaining that there has been a lot of trial and error involved over the years since the botanical garden installed its first work of mosaiculture in 1996.
