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Rustic Grotto

Water is the mainspring of any garden. At Palheiro, mountain springs are collected by levadas and fed into two large reservoirs at the top of the property.
The passage of water through the garden is celebrated by a rustic grotto which feeds into a bubbling brill and then into a series of lozenge-shaped pools edged with tritonias.

Centennial Trees

Forest species like oak, beech, chestnut and cedar grow beside exotics like eucalyptus and araucaria pines.
The monarch of the garden is a splendid specimen of Araucaria angustifolia, the candelabra tree from Brazil, run close by the Hymenosporum flavum, the Australian jasmine tree.
Other noble trees are a huge Californian redwood, Sequoia sempervirens, a magnificent 38-metre-tall Araucaria excelsa from Norfolk Island and a huge Araucaria bidwillii with pineapple-shaped cones.

Sunken Garden

A garden planted with brightly coloured flowers, including gazanias and lampranthus. Here freesias, ixias and nerines seed themselves freely. In the surrounding rockeries are agaves, aloes and dieramas.

Rose Garden

Created in 2007 by Christina Blandy around stone rings salvaged from Banger’s Pillar, a 1798 landmark on the Funchal waterfront demolished despite strong town opposition in 1939. This is planted with old-fashioned roses which are trained up the arches