GARDENS OF Quebec

TWO STORIED JARDINS WARRANT A JOURNEY NORTH FROM THE CAPITAL CITY

- Steele Hays

They are two of the northernmost and most spectacular-gardens in Canada: Quebec's les Jardins de Les Quatre Vents and Jardins de Métis. These are not "just-a-pleasant-stroll-throughthe-flowers" kind of gardens. They challenge you. If you go, prepare to be awed, amused, energized and exhausted.

Although the gardens lie on opposite sides of the St. Lawrence River as it broadens to 40 miles in width, with a bit of planning they can be visited on consecutive days and easily combined with a few days in Quebec City. The gardens at Les Quatre Vents ("the four winds") is in La Malbaie in the scenic and historic Charlevoix region, two hours north of Quebec City. It is widely considered one of the most ambitious private gardens in North America. Jardins de Métis, also known as Reford Gardens, is in the tiny village of Grand-Métis, four hours north of Quebec City on the St. Lawrence's south shore.

Both gardens were created and designed by passionate amateur gardeners who were driven to build something beautiful and lasting.

Both founders embarked on their projects in their 50s, after personal crises, and then spent the rest of their lives continuing to refine their creations and their legacies.

Les Quatre Vents

Francis H. Cabot, Jr., born in 1925 and known as Frank, was a scion of Boston's prominent Cabot family, a Harvard graduate and investment banker in the family firm. After several reverses in business, he retired at age 51.

"I was a good promoter, but I was a good promoter of ventures that didn't always work out. So I threw myself into gardening," Mr. Cabot said in a 2003 newspaper interview.

By the time he began building his 20-acre garden on the family estate in La Malbaie in the 1970s, Mr. Cabot was already an experienced horticulturist. He had served as chairman of the New York Botanical Garden and later helped found the Garden Conservancy.