Excited for winter to come to an end? A new spring activity at the Botanical Garden will surely make families forget about frosty fingers and snowy sidewalks.

From Feb. 22 until April 30, 2023, the space will be transformed into the Garden of Oddness, a half greenhouse, half laboratory of about 200 different species of plants, each with their own weird shape and size.

Guides will take families through the greenhouse while explaining about different kinds of strange plants— from the Giant with “elephant ears” to the Colocasia, whose leaves are up to 120 cm wide.

Once families have checked out all the plants, they can take part in laboratory activities. For example, learn about the greenhouses’ other categories of strange plants, like Enigmas, Animals, Flamboyants and Carnivores, by doing experiments of your own.

Photo Credit: Espace pour a vie (Mélanie Dusseault)

One weekend activity geared to kids 8 and older with their parents, is Capture your prey. Carnivorous plants are known for setting very impressive traps for catching insects. So children will learn the different tricks these plants use to attract capture and digest their prey. They will then be able to use what they’ve learned to build their own insect trap, using everyday objects.

For kids 4 to 8, there will be an activity called Carnivores in action. In this game, the goal is for the kids to catch an insect in the same way the carnivorous plant would capture its prey. For example, they can do this by throwing insect balls into the urn-shaped trap, just like the tropical pitcher plant called Nepenthes, or using a puppet to try and catch flies just like a Venus flytrap (Dionaea) plant. This activity takes place everyday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tickets cost $11.50 for kids (free for 4 and under), and $22.75 for adults. Family packs to the Botanical Gardens (two adults and two kids) are also available for $62.75.

For more information, visit espacepourlavie.ca.