Hvar in spring is just a complete flower-lover’s delight. Other kinds of lovers would be delighted by it too, but we’ll leave that for a different post.

On a recent walk to an ancient Illyrian hilltop site, I could not resist the charm of so many different kinds of flowers. I took some pictures, but there are so many sorts, plus there are aromatic herbs too, that what you get here is just a tiny sample.

The first thing we noticed as we were walking past an olive grove and vineyard is that both olives and grapes are about to burst into flowers.  It would be easy to not even notice their flowers as they are tiny and unremarkable, until you realize what they mean to the folks growing them. Bud burst is an occasion for celebration.

Along our path were wildflowers of all sorts. The rock roses seemed to attract their own admirers:

There were fragrant wild irises:

There were poppies everywhere:

I have no idea what this handsome fellow is. The stem was over 3 feet tall and the flowerhead about 5-6 inches across:

Then there were herbs. Laurel (bay), mint, oregano, sage and wild garlic. Probably others we had no idea about. The sage was flowering:

As was the wild garlic:

Slice off the head, crush gently and soak in olive oil for an amazing dressing to pour over your freshly charcoal-grilled fish. But I digress… There were cornflowers:

There were wild geraniums:

Honeysuckle:

Then there was something that looked like a relative of the acacia, with large, inflated seedpods:

It is easy when there are so many large flamboyant or fragrant flowers, to forget to look at the smaller members of the flower kingdom. This little beauty could fit into the circle formed by touching your thumb and forefinger together. Maybe an inch and a half across if that. It was eking out its existance on bare rock. Just goes to show that size is not everything: