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Usually, those are bright plants with colourful flowers or with a nice scent, but we shouldn’t forget about the “grasses” as well – the spikes and panicles of multiple kinds of grasses. Latvian folk songs mention Jāņi flowers a lot and that every blooming thing that is picked on Midsummer’s night is a good Jāņi flower. And the selection is extensive – basically, all plants that blossom around Midsummer time.

However, each district of Latvia and each family have their own favourites. I would surely vote for northern bedstraw (Galium boreale). I can’t imagine my Jāņi flower wreath (flower crown) without this fragrant white flower, which grows in natural meadows, in forest meadows and near forests. However, the flower of fern tops them all, because it must be searched exactly during the Jāņi night. And it doesn’t matter that from a botanic’s perspective; ferns do not flower at all.

The most suitable candidate for a flowering fern is the ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris), which can mostly be found in gullies in forests and on the banks of rivers and creeks. The sterile fronds of ostrich fern develops in early spring and forms a funnel similar to king’s crown, where the fertile fronds develop around Midsummer and the spores develop on them. The fertile fronds are significantly different from the sterile fronds, and they stay until the next year. They look brown and dry, but they still have the ripe spores that are distributed by wind.

Most of the Jāņi flowers grow in meadows, however, forests and their meadows and forest borders bear plenty of plants with beautiful flowers that surely are real Jāņi flowers. Of course, the flowering of each plant can be affected by the meteorological conditions and climate differences even in the small country of ours. The most “favourite” Jāņi flowers don’t bloom in the beginning of June. But beautiful plants can be found now as well – the columbine meadow-rue (Thalictrum aquilegiifolium), Solomon's-seal (Polygonatum spp.) and others.

The columbine meadow-rue is rather rare but in all territory of Latvia in wetland broadleaf forests and mixed forests, near riverbanks. It blossoms in June, July, but this year, in the sunniest places, it has been seen blooming already.

When you pick Jāņi flowers for your bouquet, please be careful not to include protected and poisonous species that can cause allergic reaction on your skin.