Madeira is famous for its gardens full of colourful flowers and trees and shrubs of various species.
Throughout the year the gardens remain flowery, and because of this there are there are always flying petals in Funchal. The air is fragrant and the sidewalks are covered by a thousand colours carpet.
Species that only grow in greenhouses throughout Europe, such as petunias, begonias, and cinerary, grow freely in Madeira island. Mild temperatures, subtropical climate and fertile volcanic soil made that plants brought from all over the world here, have been very well adapted. Because of that, beside the native vegetation we can always find a lot of exotic varieties, collected in Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, Africa, North America, Mexico or the West Indies.
Captain Cook brought a tree-of-flame of the African forest and planted it in Quinta do Vale. Like him, hundreds of people have enriched the gardens of Funchal with copies brought from distant places.
Some of the most emblematic gardens of the island are: Palheiro Gardens, Quinta Palmeira, the Madeira Botanical Garden, Monte Palace Tropical Garden and The Emperor Gardens.