From the Tropical Garden to the Quinta do Palheiro

One is left breathless when visiting the Botanical Garden with more than 2,000 exotic plants from all over the world: the corner dedicated to orchids from all over the world occupies a huge space. The area dedicated to aromatic and medicinal plants is no less impressive. Not to be outdone is the Tropical Garden on Monte Palace, which can be reached by cable car: in 70,000 square metres of space, it houses a rich collection of palm trees, cacti, thousand-year-old olive trees, tropical, indigenous and South American plants and . inside, an oriental garden has been created with pagodas, canals, bridges and paths in Japanese style, ponds with carp, swans and water birds. Once owned by the British consul Charles Murray, it then passed into the hands of Alfredo Guilherme Rodrigues, who turned it into a hotel. It was only in 1987 that a wealthy local businessman José Manuel Rodrigues Bernardo enriched it with exotic plants from various countries and native plants, made it into a foundation and opened it to the public. There is a beautiful collection of majolica exhibited in a corner of the gardens at the back of the villa. You cannot leave the island without visiting the Quinta do Palheiro, now owned by the Blandy family (they are also known as the Blandly gardens) to see the magnificent collection of camellias, hundred-year-old trees, the rose garden created by Christina Blandy and among a myriad of other flowers and climbing plants is the Lady's Garden and the Casa da Tè area, where you can admire a Brazilian auracaria and a magnificent New Zealand metrosideros. Lovely roses