• Pinterest
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Italian Notes
  • HOME
  • PEOPLE & PLACES
    • Abruzzo
    • Basilicata
    • Calabria
    • Campania
    • Emilia-Romagna
    • Friuli-Venezia Giulia
    • Lazio
    • Liguria
    • Lombardia-Lombardy
    • Marche
    • Molise
    • Piemonte-Piedmont
    • Puglia – Apulia
    • Sicilia
    • Toscana-Tuscany
    • Trentino-Alto Adige – Trentino-South Tyrol
    • Umbria
    • Veneto
  • FOOD
    • Antipasti
    • Primi piatti
    • Secondi piatti
    • Dolci
  • PR/ADVERTISING
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

Flowers in Sicily

Flowers in Sicily are few but flashy and exuberant even in summer, when most of the landscape is dressed in dusty green, brown and hay colours. Here are some of my favourites.



Booking.com


In summer, the southern part of Autostrada A14 running along the Adriatic coast of Italy is famous for the white, pink and red oleanders that line the motorway and give the impression that you are driving through a sea of flowers. In Sicily, some stretches of the Autostrada wraps you in the intense purple of the bougainvillea demonstrating that when it comes to flowers Sicily is more regal than any other Italian region.

Though a native of South America, bougainvillea plants thrive in Sicily, where they are loved for their ability to provide shade and a happy splash of colour They are cultivated in public gardens and private homes, where you can see them climb walls or innocent lamp posts.

Nerium Oleander is also a popular flower in Sicily, though its colour range is more limited and less intense. These plants lend themselves well to ornamental gardening and they are often stemmed up and used as trees to line inner city avenues.

Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Caper flower - Flowers in Sicily
Caper flower - Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily
Flowers in Sicily

Park gardeners are also very fond of the Lantana shrub with its unbelievable colour mixes, while the wild summer flowers are generally smaller and more subdued in colour. One exception to this rule is the prickly pear that flowers in bright yellow, orange and burgundy. The essence of these flowers is cherished in homeopathic circles for its harmonizing qualities, and they definitely make the thorny aspects of these cacti more pleasing.

The most useful and proliferous wild flowers in Sicily are however the caper bush. Caper plants grow spontaneously in all cracks and crevices on the island, and the large white flowers with characteristic violet stamens can be found clinging to virtually every limestone wall. Still, the caper flowers are rarely noticed. Either because they start withering after about 24 hours, or because one of the local housewives has nipped the buds and pickled them in salt for use in salads and pasta sauce, before the flowers had a chance to unfold.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
4 replies
  1. johann mendelsöhn
    johann mendelsöhn says:
    August 16, 2015 at 2:08 pm

    Thank you for all the wonderful information that you supply!

    Reply
    • Mette Vaabengaard
      Mette Vaabengaard says:
      August 23, 2015 at 10:12 am

      Thank you. As always, I appreciate the feedback:)

      Reply
  2. Turkeys For Life
    Turkeys For Life says:
    August 17, 2015 at 7:09 am

    Ahh, so that’s how capers grow, is it? The ladies must have to be really on the ball to catch them before they flower. Love bougainvillea and oleander – seems as though both are used in the same way as they are in Turkey. Their colours and shade are very welcome in the heat of summer.
    Julia

    Reply
    • Mette Vaabengaard
      Mette Vaabengaard says:
      August 23, 2015 at 10:16 am

      Believe me, the capers collecting ladies are on the ball. I’ve frequently been trashed for not tending my bush early in the morning, and thus wasting the buds and letting the beautiful flowers unfold. I’m surprised you don’t have capers in Turkey.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Followon TwitterSubscribeto RSS Feed
Discover Rome - Italian Notes

Discover Rome

Discover Florence - Italian Notes

Discover Florence

Discover Venice - Italian Notes

Discover Venice

Discover Puglia - Italian Notes

Discover Puglia

Discover Sicily - Italian Notes

Discover Sicily

Discover Piedmont - Italian Notes

Discover Piedmont

Restaurants in Foggia: Trattoria Giordano PompeoRestaurants in Foggia Trattoria Giordano PompeoChocolate Tart
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept settingsHide notification onlySettings

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refusing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visit to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Other cookies

The following cookies are also needed - You can choose if you want to allow them:

Accept settingsHide notification only