On Tuesday, 10th January the Garden Club held its first meeting of the new year. A keen audience welcomed Jeff Bates who has been coming to the club since 1980 with talks on a variety of gardening subjects. This time he was to speak about the plants and gardens of Madeira.
Madeira lies 450 miles west of Morocco. This small island is mountainous with the north coast being cool and wet and the south coast warm and dry. The mountains in the middle rise to 6,000 feet and can have snow on them all year. Madeira is green in all seasons and has a profusion of plants and flowers that one finds in the southern hemisphere such as strelitzias, agapanthus, mimosa and eucalyptus which abound all over the island, as well as many plants which grow well here such as rhododendrons, camellias and geraniums.
Jeff took the audience around five of the numerous gardens with the aid of well chosen slides. He and his wife visited the Botanic Garden, the municipal garden of Catarina Park, the Orchid Garden, the Monte Palace Gardens and the gardens of the Quinta do Paleira Ferreiro. Most of these beautiful gardens are high up on the mountain side with amazing views over the coastline. All are on the south side and fed with water from the north side carried by the levadas.
Jeff said that tourists coming from the cruise ships for the day do not get to see more than one thing, maybe one garden, as there is no time. On Tuesday evening the Garden Club saw so much more with Jeff.
The next meeting of the club will deal with the growing of vegetables when Tim Birkenshaw will talk about making a vegetable patch. This will be on Tuesday, 14th February at 7.30 pm in the Village hall. Members £1.00,visitors £3.00
