The Colour Blue!

Spring is such an exciting time for the gardener as the garden awakes giving us little peeks of new shoots and glimpses of colour with the promise of brighter months ahead. One glorious plant to nurture in your garden is the Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica). Legend has it that a Knight was walking by a river with his lady love and fell in. He had been holding a bunch of these tiny blue flowers and as he fell, tossed them to the lady, shouting 'Forget me not!' as he was swept away and drowned! However, Greek mythology states that when Zeus named all the flowers he missed one, which shouted 'Forget me not!'

Forget-me-not running through a border next to Euphorbia characias subsp wulfenii and Nepeta

This unassuming little plant is one of the first to burst into life in late March/April and can really help bridge the gap between late winter and Spring. As a self-seeder, some would consider Forget-me-not a weed, but in the right place it can really add drama to a border.

In late winter/early Spring spend some time weeding out Forget-me-not seedlings to leave behind nice clumps and swathes that will create a ribbon of blue through the border laterin the season. You can even re-plant small clumps to create bigger patches for effect. These little blue jewels look great alongside tulips and daffodils and by covering large patches of bare earth, help suppress other weeds and trap in moisture.

Forget-me-not seedlings are easy to pull up where you don't want them

So, don't dispair when you see your garden riddled with Forget-me-not seedlings. Rejoice and utislise them to better effect; they won't let you down.