We’ve got something special for all lovers of gardens and gardening out there!Visionary Gardeners, the documentary series in which innovative Canadian gardeners tell their stories, returns for a second season on VisionTV over five Monday nights beginning May 6 at 9pm ET.

This season of the cinematic and inspiring series from filmmakers Ian Toews and Mark Bradley of Victoria, B.C.-based 291 Film Company, we travel from a remote bog on Vancouver Island, over the southern Gulf Islands, through the BC interior, to a twelfth-floor balcony garden in downtown Toronto, ending up in the stunning Eastern Townships of Quebec. Along the way, Visionary Gardeners introduces viewers to the expansive minds of those who have brought their personal, creative visions to gardening.

In each episode of the series, we meet two visionary gardeners with different, yet related, visions. They reveal personal stories of their first experiences in a garden. They tell us of the ‘eureka’ moment when each made a garden discovery. But it is their exceptional ideas which set them on their individual gardening paths. The series captures the state of being that inspires their creativity by delving into the minds, beliefs, and motivations of these true visionaries.

Viewers will meet:

Episode 201 (Monday, May 6 at 9 pm ET) – “Pruning Things Back”

• A best-selling gardening writer who makes the decision to downsize and say farewell to her beloved home garden of over fifty years. (Marjorie Harris – Toronto, ON)
• A garden designer who creates lush meditation gardens using the minimalist design he learned through years of garden observation in Japan. (John Thompson – North Saanich, British Columbia)

Episode 202 (Monday, May 13 at 9 pm ET) – “Communities in Harmony”

• An orchardist who shares his collection of hundreds of varieties of apples with the greater community through an annual festival. (Harry Burton – Salt Spring Island, British Columbia).
• A waterfront gardener who celebrates the serendipity and wildness of her drought resistant plants. (Kathy Leishman – Bowen Island, British Columbia)

Episode 203 (Monday, May 20 at 9 pm ET) – “Symphonies and Sarracenias”

• A collector of rare carnivorous plants, who surveys the unexplored mountain bog ecosystems of Vancouver Island. (Justin Dunning – North Saanich, British Columbia)
• An accountant ever in search of a creative outlet, who starts a registered charity which supports the growth of performing artists, using her garden as a platform to share their music. (Mary Gore – Toronto, Ontario)

Episode 204 (Monday, May 27 at 9 pm ET) – “Gardening over Decades”

• A prairie tree breeder who patiently commits decades of his life to testing thousands of trees in hope of finding one that is resistant to deadly Dutch Elm Disease. (Rick Durand – Kelowna, British Columbia).
• A no-nonsense teacher who uses practical knowledge to connect her students to the joy of gardening. (Marion Jarvie – Thornhill, Ontario)

Episode 205 (Monday, June 3 at 9 pm ET) – “Words and History”

• A poet who honours her late husband through the garden they built together. (Lorna Crozier – North Saanich, British Columbia)
• An artist who creates sculptural works that honour the history of the land on which they reside. (Patterson Webster – Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley, Quebec)

“The real challenge of making Visionary Gardeners Season 2 was narrowing it down to just ten,” said producer/director Ian Toews. “We meet so many excellent gardeners across Canada, so those we followed this season are a just the current cross section of many more. This series strives to film people who really push against the definitions of what gardening is. So, we have a garden designer who is more interested in rocks than plants, another who propagates tiny bog plants, and another who uses her garden more like an outdoor art gallery — just to name a few.”

Visionary Gardeners was created by Gemini Award-winning Ian Toews, who shot and directed the series. It is produced by Toews and Mark Bradley and edited by Bradley. Writers are Toews, Bradley, Amy Walker, as well as author and Canadian gardening legend Marjorie Harris. Returning music composers are Amanda Cawley and the composing duo of Jacqueline Perriam & Erik Abbink, all of whom won a Leo Award for Best Musical Score, Documentary Series for Visionary Gardeners Season 1.

Watch Season 2 of Visionary Gardeners  Mondays at 9pm ET starting May 6.