You don’t have to be a botanist to appreciate flowers.
Most humans are attracted to things of beauty, and flowers are no exception. Wildflowers are colorful, graceful, and eye-catching.
But something about their fleeting drama makes them even more appealing: these blossoms are here today, gone tomorrow. You can’t bring them into your living room. You can’t hold on to them. If you were lucky enough to catch one in full bloom, you captured something rare and inaccessible. This is part of what makes finding flowers in nature such an awesome experience.
Knowing the names and characteristics of each type of blossom is not essential. You can have a wonderful time sitting in a field of multicolored wildflowers without ever being able to call a single one by name. But the more you know, the more you will appreciate. Naming flowers turns them into old friends. Once you’ve given them a name, you’ll eagerly await (and seek out) a meeting with your familiar companions and rejoice when you’re reunited each season.
In Israel, we get to say hello (and goodbye) to our flower friends year-round. Beginning in autumn, narcissus appear on the scene, their delicate white petals perched atop long stems in small clusters.
Next come the fall and winter cyclamen. These (usually light pink) blooms grow abundantly between rocks, turning every cliffside walk or descent through a winding wadi into an opportunity for discovery.
February is anemone season. As opposed to our shade loving friends the cyclamen, red anemones thrive in wide open, sunny areas. The larger and flatter the open space, the more these crimson blossoms take over.
And so on and so forth, hills covered with purple lupines and red poppies in March, then white daisies and wild carrot in spring. Come summertime, flower season has mostly come to an end, but there are still late bloomers arriving on the scene. We love to look for tall pink hollyhocks, which seem to grow in the most random places.
In our beautiful Land, flower season is never very far away. The more you explore Israel’s nature, the more opportunity you’ll have to revel in the fleeting beauty of flowers. Get to know the country’s native wildflowers and start anticipating the next wave of color.
