Like the December flowers list, I’m sure you’re once again wondering what flowers could be out in this cold dreary British January, well bear with me: we shall soon know which flowers can be found!

Once again, taken from “Enid Blyton’s Nature Lover’s Book”.

There are few flowers to be found in January, and the finding of even these few depends to a great extent on the weather. Four flowers only have been chosen for January. See if you can find them.

1.Common Chickweed: This is a common weed anywhere on waste ground or in our gardens. It has tiny white flowers with strap-shaped petals. Look at the small oval leaves growing in pairs up the stem. Notice the line of fine hairs running down one side of the stem. Break the stem, and you will see a thin green thread inside, which is very tough. The plant is rather feeble and straggling, and is usually found in an untidy tangle on the ground, for its stems are too weak to lift it up.

Common Chickweed

2. Shepherd’s Purse: A very common weed, found in any waste place. The tiny white flowers grow all together at the top of the spike. This plant has two kinds of leaves.  Those near the ground make a kind of rosette. Those further up the stalk are arrow-head-shaped. Look for the little green seed-vessels which are like tiny green wallets, set all down the stem – the little “shepherd’s purses”.  Open the little “purses” and find the “money” – many tiny seeds! You can always recognise the shepherd’s purse by its conspicuous seed-vessels.

Shepherd’s Purse

3. Groundsel: A common weed, growing in waste places and as a pest in our gardens. The flower is yellow and looks like a tiny golden shaving brush, and later on when the flower becomes a seed-head it looks like a grey-white shaving brush. The leaves are feather-shaped. Pick groundsel for your canary if you have one. You will be able to find the groundsel all the year round. It does not seem to mind any kind of weather – cold, hot, rainy or frosty.

Groundsel

4. Red Dead-Nettle: A very common garden and field weed. The flower is purple-red in the form of two lips, an upper and a lower. Look for the flowers at the base of the upper leaves. The leaves are oval-shaped, or heart-shaped. The stalk is square, weak, and rather straggling.

Red Dead-Nettle

That concludes January’s list of flowers – although they mostly seem to be weeds, I’m sure most of us will have encountered these plants in our gardens or out and about!

Good luck finding these little gems!