Introduction

Jardim Botanico or the Botanical Garden is located on a hillside over looking Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira. As Madeira has a climate best described as semi-tropical it has a whole host of plants both native and imported. Jardim Botanico is one of many gardens in and around Madeira and is a garden that represents the many differing plants that are on display all over Madeira. It's most famous item or the most photographed part of the garden is it's carpet bedding or choreographed garden. A splendid display of multi-coloured plants all arranged and shaped into diamonds, squares, lines and even lettering. The choreographed garden has been photographed so much that it is present on many of the postcards for sale in and around Madeira.

The upper garden

Jardim Botanico is laid-out on a hillside with steep cobbled paths in the upper tree clad gardens and smooth concrete paths in the middle and lower gardens. In this review I have divided it into upper, middle and lower gardens although the gardens themselves are not described in this way,

The middle gardens had a café area that was closed and a couple of toilets that were okay, but not completely clean. There were a few pools with Begonia beds surrounding them and numerous Fuchsia plants around the edge. There was a cage of birds under the tree canopy and then we saw a view of the choreographed garden from above.Jardim Botanico was a very nice garden .

Entrance

The no.31 bus terminated at the top garden entrance alongside the tiny and full car park. It was midday by the time we reached the garden entrance and it was quite quiet. The fee to get in was 3 Euros (£2) per adult,

A visit to the Botanical gardens provides visitors with the names and origins of the splendid variety of exotic flowers, vegetables, herbs and other useful plants found on Madeira.

URL: http://www.sra.pt/jarbot/ing/frame1.htm

E-mail: musschia@dragoeiro.uma.pt