[Daisy]

I was reading the thread on Alstromerias, and David Bracey's comment on the more brilliantly coloured ones, got me thinking.
Britain is so much further away from the equator, than we are here.
Consequently, the light is much bluer.
Soft colours are beautiful in that hazy light.
Here however, the light is clear and strong. Some soft colours look good, but some look muddy.
(I know, I grew some Verbascum x hybrida Southern Charm last year. They grew and flowered well. After seeing them, I rather wish they hadn't!!!! The colours looked awful)
I would not use any of the strong and brilliant coloured pelargoniums in the U.K. and wished the local councils would not use them so much.
The bright red pelargoniums on the local roundabout, looked harsh and garish in that soft blue light. Here though, in this bright clear light, a terracotta pot of scarlet pelargoniums on a whitewashed wall above a brilliant blue Mediterranean Sea is almost a cliche. With good reason. It looks great.
I love the softer colours of the various cistus that flower near my village here, but then I also love the strong yellow of the Spartium junceum and the strong pinks of the Nerine oleander against the blue sea or the silver grey of the olive groves.
It is the light that makes all the difference, so David, I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you.
Daisy

[David Bracey]

I note that your flower colours are mauve and yellow.  These were the very colours used by the pointilist`s school of Impressionists such as Sisley, Seurat and Signac which made their paintings unique.

Was your colour selection by accident or by design Daisy?.

[Daisy]

David, that's amazing.   I hadn't realised I had done that. Not even after watching on BBC4, Richard E. Grant's first programme on The Riviera: A History in Pictures. Did you see it?
In it he points out the difference and the difficulty various artists had when they came from the bluer, softer light of around Paris and Normandy, to the strong, clear light of the Riviera. And how it was the pointilists who mastered it first, using violets and yellows.
Now I am even more confused Because I realise that I prefer the impressionist's work from further north, around Paris and Normandy. The softer tones. The more diffuse shadows.
I suppose this means that I both agree and disagree with you.
Daisy

[David Bracey]

Yes  I did watch R Grant`s programme.  I would not have known that fact otherwise.

To me colours of Mediterranean flowers are soft pastels etc but of course they are not.