VILLA GARDENS EAST OF FUNCHAL 45 



soon evident that it is not really spring ; the sap is 

 not really rising, and through December, January, 

 and February, it lies more or less stagnant and 

 dormant, so unless seedlings and cuttings have 

 made a good start before then, they will grow but 

 little during those three months. The same will 

 apply to plants which have been cut back ; they 

 should have made fresh shoots before the middle of 

 November, or they will remain more or less bare 

 and unsightly throughout the winter. By the 

 time when most of the English owners return to 

 their gardens in late November or early December, 

 all traces of the necessary cutting should have 

 vanished, and though the garden may not be gay 

 with flowers, it should be full of promise of glories 

 to come. But it seems hard to train a Portuguese 

 gardener to get through his pruning at this season, 

 and to have done with it for the time being, as, 

 according to his ideas, pruning should be done 

 apparently promiscuously, at any and every season 

 of the year, and he is never happy without a 

 pruning-knife in his hand, as often as not dealing 

 death and destruction to a plant when it is in full 

 beauty. 



In the lower part of the garden a small pond, 

 shaded by a weeping willow, whose parent was 



