44 FLOWERS AND GARDENS OF MADEIRA 



Possibly April is the best month to visit this 

 garden, though at no season is it without flowers, 

 but March, April, and May are the best months of 

 the year in all Madeira gardens. In some ways 

 the autumn here seems as though it ought to be 

 spring. Late in September or early in October 

 the gardens go through the tidying up, pruning, 

 and cutting back, which is generally done in our 

 English gardens in early spring, and are made 

 ready to reap the full benefit of the heavy autumn 

 rains. Here during the summer everything has been 

 left to grow as it will : the roses put forth long, 

 rank, flowerless growth ; the creepers grow out of all 

 bounds ; geraniums grow " leggy," with long leafless 

 stems ; the heliotrope has flowered itself to death, 

 and must be cut back in order to make fresh growth 

 for the coming season. The gardens by the end of 

 the long, dry summer must present the aspect of an 

 overgrown jungle, and according to the judicious or 

 injudicious pruning in September and October will 

 greatly depend the failure or success of the garden 

 for the rest of the year. This also is the season 

 for sowing seeds, and probably the best moment 

 for starting newly imported treasures ; it is most 

 important that all these operations should be got 

 through early in October, as by November it is 



