Forget-me-nots with Pulmonaria
We can often be quick to dismiss plants that are common and easy to grow, considering them not worthy of a spot in our garden. Not me. I have learned, in 14 years of living where I do, what works here and what doesn’t, and have given up trying to grow anything that just isn’t happy and only brings frustration and disappointment.
When I had my first garden and knew absolutely nothing about plants, I went for coffee at a neighbour’s. Their garden had a very wild feel about it and was a mass of forget-me-nots. I thought them very pretty and asked could I have some to plant in my small plot. She laughed,
“Gladly” she said, “as you can see, they come up everywhere here”
I went home with a few bunches of the pretty blue flowers she had dug up and wrapped in newspaper for me. I planted them carefully, not realising they were biennials and wouldn’t come back the next year. They did, however, set seed and new plants came up just about everywhere else. I was never without them thereafter. I have grown them in every garden I’ve had since and for me, they are one of the harbingers of spring.
They begin to flower as the first daffodils fade and the buds of tulips start to colour up. Their sky-blue blooms are the perfect partner for tulips of pretty much any colour. I first saw them planted together en masse, many years ago at Barnsley House, the former home of the late, revered garden designer, Rosemary Verey. The entire bed was a sea of blue with the long stems and luscious heads of pink and white tulips rising out of it. They looked stunning.
Part of the charm of forget-me-nots is in their name. Not surprisingly, they symbolise remembrance, true-love and devotion. There are several legends about how the plant got its name with the most oft-repeated being that of a French medieval knight walking along a river bank with his lady. He bent down to pluck a bunch of the blue flowers growing there, to give to her, but because of his heavy armour overbalanced and fell into the strong current. Before he sank and disappeared forever, he threw the flowers to his lady-love shouting “Forget me not”.
All of this seems a little unlikely: the question that pops into my mind is, what was he doing wearing his armour when out for an afternoon stroll? But none-the-less, it’s a quaint story and about as close as we’re going to get to any explanation about how the plant got its common name.
The plant is known around the globe and, because of its name, has been adopted for various causes including commemoration of those who fell in the war and, more recently, by Alzheimer’s societies advocating for those suffering from memory loss.
A vintage decoupage box with a lover’s message: “Think sometimes of the Sender”
Before my mum died, she requested that we bury her ashes underneath the old oak that stands on the hill at the back of my brother’s home. The view from there is stunning and it was her favourite place to stand in the evening to look out across the dips and rounds of the Surrey Hills.
We fixed a small plaque with a tribute on it to the tree and I decided to plant forget-me-nots hoping they would seed around and become a permanent reminder. Sadly, it was too dry for them under the tree canopy, and they only lived for that one spring. In truth, I am reminded of my mum almost every day, even forty years after her death, by the thoughts that regularly come to me, so I don’t really need a visual reminder.
Forget-me-nots can be used to make herbal tea, scattered across salad leaves or dropped into the water of ice-cube trays before you put them in the freezer. The ice cubes look lovely floating in gin and tonics once the summer comes.
Forget-me-nots with parrot tulips in terracotta pots
Forget-me-nots (Myosotis scorpioides) could never be described as sophisticated flowers, but they have a charm they share with other diminutive spring plants such as Pulmonaria, Primroses and Lily of The Valley. They are reliable, easy to grow and give the garden a burst of colour early in the season.
Provided they like the conditions in your garden they will seed themselves around and the resulting plants will leaf up and then flower and die in their second year. I always have a row of them either side of the small path made of granite setts that runs between two of the beds in the middle of my garden. I also grow them in pots with my tulips and have a few plants on their own in smaller terracotta pots to dot around elsewhere.
Forget-me-nots with purple-leaved and white honesty and Euphorbia characias Wulfenii
Once you’ve got forget-me-nots, you’ll never be without them: they seed everywhere. The tiny seed pods and stems are slightly sticky and attach themselves to anything they brush against, including my gardening clothes and the dog’s coat, so the seeds are always spread. Annoyingly, seedlings spring up in the lawn and along the hoggin path that snakes up through my garden as well as the places I do want them!
Although classed as a short-lived perennial, forget-me-nots are more often grown as biennial. They flower for weeks, but as fewer blooms appear on the stems, the foliage starts to mildew and this is the time to pull them up and put them on the compost heap. To collect seed, just shake a few of the bunches upside down onto a sheet of paper, pour the seeds into an envelope and label if not sowing immediately.
Forget-me-nots after heavy rain, with a rather handsome visitor
One of the loveliest presents I have ever received was from my daughter Hattie when she gave me a Mother’s day card one year. Inside it was a beautifully designed packet containing forget-me-not seeds. She said
“They always remind me of the garden at The Old Station”
This was their childhood home in Hampshire and she knows how much I miss that half-an-acre that I spent 11 years turning into a garden I was really proud of. I was so touched by her thoughts. I scattered the seed in my current garden, so now, forget-me-nots now always remind me of my daughters as well as my mum.
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Love the story about your mum's ashes, especially as today, 5 May, was my mother's birthday. She died 14 years ago and I, too, think of her almost every day.
Thanks Kitty. Yes, I still always think of my mum on her birthday in July although she would be 112 this year if she was still with us!!