June Newsletter

If you ask most visitors and residents on Crete they will say that by June the flowers are over, but it really isn’t so.  Yes, OK, the land at lower altitudes is now parched and dry, but if you are prepared to look further and higher, then you will be rewarded with some lovely surprises.

Take the fragile flowers of Capparis spinosa – the caper.  As you can see from the image here, it is superb.  The flower buds of C. spinosa are pickled to make the capers sprinkled on salads in smart restaurants or a piquant ingredient in a classic Wiener Schnitzel.

Capparis spinosa – The Caper       © Julia Jones and Flowers of Crete

If you fancy trying your hand at home pickled capers, choose only the small, tight flower buds and wear a pair of gloves – this caper is not named ‘spinosa’ for nothing.

On a recent excursion to Rethymno and Spilli with visitors from the UK, we came across a single orchid – Ophrys Candica – The White Ophrys.  Admittedly, this specimen was past its best, but as O. candica is relatively rare on the island, I felt it worth mentioning here.

It is a very pretty and quite late-flowering variety and on the site we visited there were still three plants in flower.

Ophrys candica – The White Ophrys © Julia Jones and Flowers of Crete

In the mountains many tiny flowers, growing close to the ground to protect themselves from the intense heat of the summer sun, can be found by those that have the patience to look.

Prunella cretensis           © Julia Jones and Flowers of Crete

This little plant maybe doesn’t look like much, but it is endemic to Crete and hides itself in the shade of larger plants to protect it’s self from grazing sheep and goats.

June sees the publication of the first ‘Flowers of Crete’ Calendar for 2008, featuring 14 original, high-resolution images of Cretan orchids.  Proceeds from the sale of this calendar will go towards the cost of forming a Zylogos (not-for-profit organisation) on Crete.  For more information please visit my website www.flowersofcrete.info.

Anyone who is interested in the work being done by Flowers of Crete or who would like to know more about the organisation should contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .