Last month we brought you November Flowers from Enid Blyton’s Nature Lover’s Book so naturally we are following up with December’s Flowers. I know, I can hear you saying “flowers… flowers in December? You must be pulling my leg!”  however, it’s true there are flowers in December!

This is what Enid Blyton has to say about December flowers:

Flowers are few and far between in December, but we can find many of those […] such as Shepard’s purse and groundsel. The four mentioned below may sometimes be found, though if the weather is bitter, they may have shrivelled in the frost.

So on to the flowers themselves!

1. Winter Heliotrope: This fragrant mauve flower is rather like the butterbur, its cousin. Look for it in damp places. It has many close-set, pale-lilac flower-heads growing in a spike. The leaves are very big indeed. Smell the flowers and  enjoy their unexpected fragrance.

Winter Heliotrope Flower

Winter Heliotrope Leaf

2. Knotgrass: The Pink Knotgrass may sometimes be seen still flowering freely in the winter, in fields or gardens, straggling over the ground on weak steams. Look for the tiny pink flowers on the leaf-bases. The leaves are lance-shaped and sit closely to the stem. You may not notice they knotgrass in the summer, when there are so many hundred of plants growing together, so look for it now when it is more easily seen.

Knotgrass

3. Wall Pellitory: Pellitory-of-the-wall begins to flower in the summer-time, but often continues right up till Christmas, its reddish-green flowers growing close to the red stems that spring up from old walls. Look for the stalked, oval leaves growing at intervals all the way up the stem. They are softly hairy. The reddish stems, growing from the wall in clump, are sure to catch your eye.

Wall Pellitory or Pellitory-on-the-Wall

4. Dwarf Furze: We may find one or two yellow blooms on ordinary gorse now, and we are almost certain to find the pale-yellow wings-and-keel flowers of the dwarf furze or gorse out in bloom even in the middle of winter. You will know the dwarf gorse because it is smaller in every way than the ordinary gorse, and has lighter yellow flowers. Notice the spreading of the wings of the flower.

Dwarf Furze or Dwarf Gorse

So those are the flowers that the Nature Lover’s Book tells us to look out for!

I think I’ve seen some Dwarf Gorse recently! What have you seen?