The International Garden Festival from Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Garden returns to Canada Blooms in Toronto from March 15 to March 24. This year’s installation has been designed for the International Garden Festival by emerging Québec designer, Emmy Tougas. It will be Canada’s Garden Route booth for the 10 days of the show. Entitled ‘Canada’s Garden Route: Ode to the Humble Maple Syrup Bucket’, the design uses 105 maple syrup buckets salvaged from a local sugar shack to present a colourful wall of spring bloom. The buckets have been painted in a rainbow of colours and are attached to a wall that rises from the show floor. The theme is the perfect backdrop for the six gardens (Reford Gardens / Jardins de Métis, Butchart Gardens, Kingsbrae Garden, Royal Botanical Garden, Parkwood National Historic Site & Garden and Mosaïculture international de Montréal) from across Canada that are assembling to promote the gardens and garden tourism to all Canadians in the garden route booth. As March is “sugaring off” in most parts of Canada and maple syrup is considered by many to be our iconic food export, the wall of syrup buckets is a welcome reminder of spring and the start of the gardening and growing season. About the Designer - Emmy Tougas Emmy Tougas is an environmental designer based with Groupe Leclerc architecture + design in St. Hubert, Québec. A recent graduate in environmental design of the Université du Québec à Montréal, she worked as a volunteer in the construction of the gardens of the International Garden Festival in the summer of 2012. The Festival commissioned her to design this installation for Canada Blooms. For more information: www.groupeleclerc.ca About Canada Blooms Canada Blooms is Canada’s largest flower and garden festival. It attracted more than 200,000 visitors last yeaer. It is being held in conjunction with the National Home Show at the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place in Toronto from Friday, March 15 to Sunday, March 24. The International Garden Festival has been present at Canada Blooms for more than a decade. The garden presented at last year’s edition of Canada Blooms, Surface Deep by Harvard University professors David Mah and Leire Ascensio, was awarded the award for Most Imaginative Garden in 2012. This year, a team from Les Jardins de Métis/Reford Gardens will be on hand in Canada’s Garden Route booth from Friday, March 22 to Sunday, March 24. 14th Edition of the International Garden Festival The 14th edition of the International Garden Festival will feature 27 gardens (the largest number ever) by designers from Montréal, Toronto and Winnipeg and from the United States, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The Festival is also presenting extra-mural gardens on the Place de la Dauversière and at the Mosaïcultures Internationales Montréal at the Montreal Botanical Garden. We will also be presenting gardens in the nearby communities of Ste-Flavie and Mont-Joli. Launched in 2000, the International Garden Festival takes place on a site adjacent to the historic gardens. A unique forum for innovation and experimentation, the Festival has presented more than 130 gardens by over 500 designers from fourteen countries over the past decade. This artistic event allows visitors to discover inspiring spaces bringing together the visual arts, architecture, design, the landscape, and nature. The International Garden Festival is presented with the financial assistance of many public and private partners: Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Tourisme Québec, Canada Summer Jobs and Emploi-Québec. The sponsors of the 14th edition are: Premier Horticulture, Miellerie Tête en Fleurs and Pépinière Charlevoix.