Do you find yourself looking for a bigger-than-life experience to have in Atlanta whether you have a date or house guests for the weekend? Then look no further than our own downtown backyard as the Atlanta Botanical Garden showcases the Imaginary Worlds: Plants Larger than Life from May through October. It’s 19 monumental mosaiculture —the horticultural art of creating giant topiary-like sculptures using thousands and thousands of living plants to carpet the steel forms. It’s the creative genius of International Mosaiculture of Montreal, Montreal, Canada and so worth seeing if you’ve been to the Garden a dozen times or have never been before.

Wonder the entire Garden to see the sculptures ranging up to 25 feet tall and 20 feet wide including a grazing unicorn, a friendly ogre (kids can walk through his giant head), a pair of gigantic cobras, a group of enchanting rabbits, a couple of flighty butterflies, and a pair of dancing fish. But the largest and most impressive piece is the 25-foot-tall goddess emerging from the ground, stuffed with 40,000 annuals at the Cascades Gardens.

The Garden is located at 1345 Piedmont Ave. NE and open April through October from 9 a.m. – 7 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday (until 10 p.m. on Thursday because they have Cocktails in the Garden from May – September with a monthly themed garden-inspired cocktail) and November through March from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $18.95 adults, $12.95 children 3 – 12, and free to children under three and Garden members. Details: atlantabotanicalgarden.org or phone 404.876.5859.

Plants were selected to give this friendly ogre a beard and hair while children can walk through his giant head. He gives new meaning to a hole in one's head.

The day I visited the Atlanta Botanical Garden staff members were putting the finishing touches on its pair of cobras whose tails circle its base.

A grazing unicorn greets guest before they venture onto the suspended canopy walkway to view the goddess.

Earth Goddess, the largest sculpture towers at 25 feet tall and is assembled from 23 sections, each weighting 2,500 pounds for a total weight of nearly 29 tons. No one asks this goddess how her butt looks in her jeans!