If you are patient, you can watch this incredible Caper flower open before your eyes. If you are hungry for Capers, you will never see this magnificent vision. It is the young, tender green flower pods that are picked and pickled.

Caper is a spiny, trailing, deciduous shrub native to the Mediterranean. In W.E. Shewell-Cooper's book Plants, Flowers and Herbs of the Bible, we learn that the Hebrew word for Caper is tapher which actually means desire. Capers are found in Jerusalem and around Nazareth and are offered as a sort of Hors d'oeuvre to stimulate the appetite or to increase the desire to eat. Caper plants are tender and  will not take freezing temperatures. They have over wintered in a very cool greenhouse now for several years.  Grow them outdoors in a pot in full sun during summer and bring them in for the winter. Set the pot up high so the stems can tumble freely and grow unimpeded.