Fiori mese per mese: My Venetian Flower Calendar

Enjoy a colorful start into the New Year and find out which flowers take center stage in which month of the Venice gardening year, regaling us lush cascades of bright flowers and often captivating scents. This is my personal flower calendar, based on which blossoms I come across in our own garden and in our neighborhood. This "calendar" offers only a small, favorite selection of flowers in full bloom here in Venice (so you can choose when to come and what to see ...) 

Summer in Venice; Pale pink, crimson and purple coloared Impatiens brighten up the Giardini Reali in August

We start off in January very traditionally with our fair winter flowers - le violette as we call them (pansies). A few mistaken flowers of geranium might still be in bloom, but this is really rare. Fortunately, our evergreen plants brighten up our space all year long ... Towards the end of the month, almond bushes in a sheltered place might start to grow pale-pink blossoms in a tentative manner.

January delight: mauve-colored pansies

The odd almond flower twig in Venice

February brings spots of bright colors as the wild tulips wake up from their hibernation. Also, later that month, cherry trees may start blossoming on a particularly sheltered and sunny spot.

Amber-red tulips in our flower bed in late February

Lavender colored blossoms of the vinca in February

In March you can admire the rose-like blossoms of the camellias.

April is my favorite month by far - the wonderful wisteria comes into full bloom, by the third week of the year  i grappoli di glicine - its purple blossoms usher in the beginning of the warm season. 

Read more about wisteria in Venice in my post "Locanda Fiorita"

Also, the first buds of brilliantly red, white, orange, and pink roses climbing up facades appear, and rose bushes embellish the perfectly kempt lawns of the gardens facing the Canal grande with their red, yellow and pink blossoms. The liies-of-the-valley, hidden in the sheltered spots under evergreen plants come into bloom in my grandfather's garden. And - one must not forget the sweet-scented lilac twigs that brighten up a forgotten corner of the garden with their pale lavender-colored blossoms. 

Rose buds in April

Growing profusely on the lawn and in terracotta pots: lily-of-the-valley in Venice, mid-April

Green front and facade gardens all year long - even  more lush on a fine spring day: Corte del Milion - Malibran

May (and sometimes April) brings back the slightly vanilla-scented blossoms of oleanders. They come in various color shades here in the Veneto: ruby and auburn, apricot, pale pink, coral pink, mauve, white, pale yellow, lemon yellow, almond, brilliant rose, burnt sienna even. 

Oleander-embellished entrance - will soon come into bloom in May:  Campo Santo Stefano

Bright pink: Oleander

Oleander hedges in Venice

The sweet smelling tiny white flowers of the osmanthus bushes blossom on Venetian campi and along the viali alberati (tree-lined streets) of the Lido by the third week of June.

Olea fragrans (osmanthus) hedges on the Lido

Near Rialto / San Lio, canal garden 

Near San Lio: glimps into a Venice garden in June

Summer jasmine (gelsomino) then continues spreading nuvole di profumo - perfumed waves of bright sunshine in July, alongside with the bright summer flowers of geranium in full bloom.It is also the season of the purple-colored Mandevilla.

Gelsomino at the beginning of July

The roof terraces in Venice (le altane) get greener and greener every day ... (near San Giovanni Crisostomo)

Mandevilla plants in July (Giardini Reali)

In August, the impatiens flowers are in full bloom (see picture at the beginning of this post). And so are almost all the other flowers, though they might suffer a bit by August, due to the unrelenting mid-summer sun and lack of water.

August is usually quite dry in Venice, though severe thunderstorms must be expected. Here are some geranium combined with scented ivy, Piazzetta

In August, you are grateful for the huge shady evergreen plants like magnolia and olives. This is Calle della Pietà in August. Flowering shrubs can only survive under big trees like these.

Brightly colored balcony in Cannaregio, side alley from Salizzada San Lio

Towards the beginning of September, to my mind, the light blue blossoms of plumbago are most beautiful, as they recover from the exceptionally hot summer days. September is also the month when the wisteria almost comes into a second bloom, less spectacular than it is in April, but you will find the one or other flower grapes amidst the light green foliage.

Plumbago

Plumbago-adorned balconies, Campo San Zaccaria

From the beginning of October, the flower scene slowly starts to change. Rose buds become more rare and  also smaller, geranium and oleanders cease to bloom, and chrysanthenum (red, white, yellow, bright orange, sienna-colored) bring colorful accents to balconies and terraces, and altane of course.

Bright day at the beginning of October, but with less blossoms, near Campo Santo Stefano

The crysanthenum flowers continue to blossom far into November, together with the freshly planted cyclamen (purple, cerise, magenta-shaded flowers).

Winter sun and brightly colored cyclamen, Giardini Reali

And finally, you may have read my previous post, it is the brightly colored Stella di Natale plants, coming in many shades of red - from crimson to cerise, but also in an iced pink and champagne hue, that are the unchallenged "main actors on the flower stage" in December and during the Christmas holidays in Venice.

Green spots in Winter - Campo San Zaccaria