There has been a garden in the Furnas Valley for over 200 years. Seen from the top of the Pico do Ferro viewpoint, you can see that the “valley” is actually a crater, seven kilometres in diameter, and the last remains of an apparently long-extinct volcano. The Furnas Valley became popular towards the end of the 18th century, due to the growing interest in the use of mineral water to treat health problems, such as rheumatism and obesity. Furnas has hundreds of small springs and streams, all with different properties. The Terra Nostra Garden is located in the midst of this magnificent water system.

At Terra Nostra, you can find flora typical of the Azores, as well as numerous plants native to countries with climates that are completely different to that of Furnas. This adaptation has been made possible, in part, by the shared experience of Terra Nostra’s gardeners, who have been successful in adapting various plants, species and varieties to the existing conditions of the garden.

In a garden which is two hundred years old, along a number of different possible pathways, you can find plants in very different phases of growth. There are hundred-year old trees of the genera Metrosideros and Araucaria, and other important tree species, such as, liriodendron tulipifera, Sequoias sempervirens, Quercus robur, Taxodium ascendens, Taxodium distichum, Eucalyptus globulus, Ginkgo biloba, among others; innumerable shrubs the size of trees, such as rhododendrons, magnolias and camellia; as well as other plants and flowers, particularly azaleas, hydrangeas, Kaffir lilies, calla lilies, of the Araceae family, tree ferns, and countless other species, all of which contribute with their colours, forms and growth to making the garden a fine destination in itself, and wonderful to visit any time of the year.

Over the past two decades, the Terra Nostra continued to enrich its botanical value through the acquisition of new plant species. This constant concern to diversify and enrich the existing flora ensures that the garden now possesses large collections and beds with plants of major historical and cultural value. These collections and gardens include the Fern Collection (with nearly 300 different species, varieties and cultivars), the Cycadales Collection (with 85 different species and sub-species), the Camellia Collection (with more than 600 different species and cultivars), the Azorean Endemic and Native Flora Garden (including several examples of the major plants endemic to the island of São Miguel) and, finally, the Vireya Garden – Malaysia Rhododendron, with a display of magnificent colours, all year round. In 2010, a new area adjacent to the garden of endemic and native Azorean plants was built to host the most recent collection – that of the Bromeliads (plants of the Bromeliaceae family). This collection is still in the experimentation phase and the plants are still adapting to the climactic conditions. However, the new garden already has nearly 100 different bromeliads, some of them arranged on the magnificent roots of a few existing trees, commonly known as “Til”, the scientific name of which is Ocotea foetens. New projects are continually being developed in such a way as to ensure the conservation of this unique environment, particularly, the creation of a bamboo garden and an artificial lake to host the Victoria cruziana Orb., a water plant of the Nymphaeaceae family, from northern Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia. This species of plant is a gigantic lily pad, rendered unique and fascinating by the morphology of its leaves (reminiscent of a pie mould), which can grow up to one metre in diameter. The flowers acquire various tones and shapes during their short life cycle, a rare beauty which survives only 48 hours. Today, the Terra Nostra Garden is the site of one of the most remarkable collections of camellias in the world, with more than 600 varieties of different species and cultivars, with one of the largest, if not the largest, collections of Cycladades in Europe. By 2010, the Victoria cruziana could already be seen at Terra Nostra, distinguishing the garden as one of the only ones in Portugal to possess this plant in the open air. The peerless beauty of this garden is the result of the Bensaude family’s taste and the dynamism of the current head gardener, supported in particular by Patrícia and Joaquim Bensaude.