José do Canto Botanical Garden

Why go

The garden's own site says José do Canto (1820-1898) made his garden in Ponta Delgada, from the 1850s, a place to acclimatise thousands of plant species, and quotes the German botanist Edmond Goeze, who visited it during an 1866 mission to São Miguel and wrote that he studied the vegetation of foreign countries there. It says the present garden covers 5.8 hectares and is planted with large trees from Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, East and Southeast Asia, North America, Europe and Macaronesia. The Fundação Jardim José do Canto, set up in 2009 and based at the garden, has the upkeep, conservation and development of the garden and its buildings as its main purpose. Ponta Delgada's municipal tourism site says the garden is open to the public, that José do Canto had its design brought from London, that the José do Canto palace stands in it and that it is open for parties and events.