Ciao! I'm Laura.
  • Journal
  • About
  • Writing
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Journal
  • Books
  • Podcast
  • About
    • Writing
  • Contact

Ciao Amalfi

Nature, Out and About · May 20, 2009

Out & About: Amalfi Coast Mystery Flowers

Last Sunday, just outside the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Pontone, I noticed a plant with these strange, bright red flowers. They looked like bottle cleaners! I was told they weren’t native to the area, but yesterday I noticed a couple more while driving between Amalfi and Maiori. They are really beautiful!

Do you know what these are called in English and/ or Italian?
Please leave a comment! Grazie!

Posted In: Nature, Out and About

You’ll Also Love

A winter stroll through Ravello’s Villa Cimbrone
Out & About: Olive Trees Above Amalfi
Out & About

Comments

  1. KC says

    May 20, 2009 at 09:44

    I always thought they were called bottle brush, but I’m not sure if that’s what they really are. As for the Italian, boh!

    They’re beautiful, though.

    Reply
  2. Scintilla @ Bell'Avventura says

    May 20, 2009 at 11:41

    They are Bottle brush in Australian slang. Their real name is Callistemon. After they flower they have funny pock-marked seed heads. They should do well on the coast(if it doesn’t go below zero), as they love coastal areas in Australia.

    Reply
  3. Chef Chuck says

    May 20, 2009 at 14:04

    They are beautiful, bottle brush is the name I recall. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Laura says

    May 20, 2009 at 17:29

    Ciao KC! You’re right! Thanks for the help.

    Ciao Scintilla! I knew you would know! 🙂 Callistemon… what a pretty name! And I thought they looked like bottle cleaners. I wonder if the Italians call them something like scovolino, which my dictionary says means bottle brush or bottle cleaner? Thanks for your help!

    Ciao Chuck! Do you see these plants in Arizona? My mom says she remembers seeing them in Nebraska.

    Reply
  5. Chef Chuck says

    May 20, 2009 at 20:32

    Yes we do Laura, I see more of the photo type you have at sea level in phx. I am elevated 5000 ft. up and tucked in the high plains. Here I have on my land a different looking bottle brush also known as hot poker!!
    Very colorful also 🙂

    Reply
  6. Anne in Oxfordshire says

    May 20, 2009 at 21:40

    Hi Laura…what a wonderful plant, so colourful…Never seen them before…

    You are right about the Italians calling them Scovolino…

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/coyolxahuqui/3541679221/….I just had to google it ha ha

    We have a plant called Red Hot Poke too…not sure if it is the same as Chef Chuck is talking about though!!

    Reply
  7. Laura says

    May 21, 2009 at 08:33

    Ciao Chuck! Glad you have this pretty flower where you live, too! Hot poker is a perfect name for them! 🙂

    Ciao Anne! Thanks for the link! With such a descriptive name in English I am not surprised they have the same in Italian. When I told my boyfriend he laughed and said that it made sense because that is exactly what they look like. I am loving the name red hot poke!! Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  8. Anne in Oxfordshire says

    May 23, 2009 at 21:23

    Oh my word…that was a mis-spelt word ha ha ha should be Red Hot Poker 🙂 🙂

    Reply
  9. Delwyn says

    May 31, 2009 at 11:26

    Hello Laura

    I came to you Via scintilla and am another Australian and I had to stop at your Callistemon because they are always so beautiful.

    I have been photographing them around my place lately.
    Today I was walking in the bush on a bush tucker walk and finding more interesting plants.
    I have enjoyed starting to read your blog.

    Happy days

    Reply
  10. Laura says

    May 31, 2009 at 12:11

    Ciao Delwyn! So happy you stopped by and left a comment. I am always happy to meet new readers and find new blogs! I think the callistemon are so beautiful. Glad to hear you enjoy the blog! Warm and happy wishes to you, too! 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

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

Next Post >

Tempting Tuesday: Scala Porte Aperte

Ciao!

My name is Laura and the Amalfi Coast is my passion and my home. I’m a writer and photographer who is endlessly inspired by the incredible beauty of the Amalfi Coast. Welcome to Ciao Amalfi!

Ciao Amalfi

  • Journal
  • Moon Amalfi Coast
  • Newsletter
  • Contact

Amalfi Coast

  • Amalfi
  • Positano
  • Ravello
  • Amalfi Coast

Explore

  • Travel
  • History & Culture
  • Food & Drink
  • Shopping

Laura Thayer

  • About
  • Writing
  • Book Reviews
  • Work with Me

Latest on Instagram

Celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with a newsl Celebrating Independent Bookstore Day with a newsletter inspired in part by this beautiful song by @samantha_whates & @mgboultermusic. While I could never decide on just seven bookshops for my whole life, I’m sharing about seven remarkable indie bookshops I visited earlier this month in Bath and London. The link is in my bio, but swipe through the photos here for a look inside - each bookshop is tagged if they’re on Instagram. But definitely give them all a follow: 
@persephonebooks 
@mrbsemporium 
@toppingsbath 
@sherlockandpages 
@huntingravenbooks 
@hatchardspiccadilly 
@lrbbookshop 

Long live the independent bookshops! 📚
Thanks Amalfi … I needed a little reminder of th Thanks Amalfi … I needed a little reminder of that this morning. 🩶
Magic to watch the reflections dancing on the wate Magic to watch the reflections dancing on the water. Magic when they’re frozen in time. Just so much magic all around. I could spend a long time in moments like these. ✨
While it’s been a beautiful Easter Sunday in Ama While it’s been a beautiful Easter Sunday in Amalfi, I’m still processing all of the incredible experiences from my trip to England last week. And, thanks to “Square Haunting” by @francescawade, I am still very much haunting the streets and squares of London. Her book opens with this marvelous quotation from Virginia Woolf’s diary written 100 years ago today on April 20, 1925 (photo 1). It captures just what it felt like I was doing days ago - including a saunter through Bloomsbury Square (photo 2). Diving into this book over the weekend has felt like I’ve been able to linger even longer in those rare April days of spring blooms and blue skies in London. 

This book caught my eye immediately at the ever so charming @sherlockandpages in Frome (photos 4 & 5). How could it not when it was surrounded my one of my all time favorite books (“Letters to Camondo” by @edmunddewaal) and one of the best books I read last year (“All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me” by @patrickbringley)?

Hope that your Easter weekend has been a lovely one - with a little bit of “street sauntering & square haunting” wherever you may be!
Just had an unforgettable spring day visiting the Just had an unforgettable spring day visiting the Jane Austen House in Chawton as an early birthday present for myself.(Quite a bit early as it’s not until June.) But earlier this year I decided to have a Jane Austen theme for the year, especially since 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth in 1775. I do love a theme! Seeing the place where she wrote all of her novels, her tiny twelve-sided writing table, a quilt she made, and sitting in the garden listening to the birds sing is altogether something I’ll never forget. ✍️
Watching the colors of the sea and the fish swimmi Watching the colors of the sea and the fish swimming and thinking of the deep connections of old friends. And this poem by Mary Oliver. Hold tight to the friends who always find a way to say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment.

Mysteries, Yes 
— by Mary Oliver

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
Mary Oliver wrote in a poem that “happiness isn’t a town on a map.” But when the little bit of wisteria blooms in Amalfi, I’m not so sure. 💜
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site Disclosure

Copyright © 2025 Ciao Amalfi · Theme by 17th Avenue