Royal blue forget-me-not seeds (Myosotis sylvatica)

Myosotis sylvatica

Wood forget-me-not, forget-me-not, mouse-ear: its Latin name comes from the Greek mus otis, “mouse’s ear,” referring to its small, downy leaves. But it is its common name that has crossed languages — forget-me-not in English, Vergissmeinnicht in German — carried by a medieval legend in which a knight, swept away by a river, threw the bouquet to his lady while shouting these words.

Characteristics:

• Deep blue flowering: clouds of tiny flowers with yellow centers, from spring through October.
• Biennial: sown in summer, it flowers the following spring, then reseeds itself year after year.
• Easy to care for: little watering, little maintenance, a true spring ground cover.

Sowing advice:

• Exposure: sunny in temperate regions, partial shade in hot regions — it is a light woodland plant and appreciates cool conditions.
• Soil: ordinary, cool, humus-rich and well-drained. It dislikes dry, scorching summer soils, which cause it to decline prematurely. Slightly enriching the soil with organic matter is beneficial.
• Method: sow in a nursery or directly in the ground from June to early September, barely covering the seeds, for flowering the following spring. No soaking or stratification. See how to sow your seeds.

Planting advice:

• Transplant the young plants in autumn to their final location, spacing them 20 cm apart, in beds, borders, rock gardens or containers.

Care advice:

• Water lightly during dry periods. Let a few plants go to seed: they will then take care of returning on their own each year.

Beneficial combinations:

• A classic companion for spring bulbs, whose yellowing foliage it conceals. It also forms a lovely blue carpet at the base of hollyhocks or along a shady border. See combining flowers in the vegetable garden.

Benefits for biodiversity:

• Its very early flowering makes it a valuable resource for the first solitary bees and butterflies emerging from hibernation.
• Its dense carpet shelters soil microfauna and protects the ground from drying out in spring.

Uses:

• Beds, borders, rock gardens, containers and balcony planters. Its flowers are also edible and make lovely decorations for desserts. See our edible flowers.

Symbolism:
The flower of remembrance and romantic fidelity, the forget-me-not literally means “do not forget me” in almost all European languages.

Harvesting your own seeds:
The tiny black seeds form in groups of four at the bottom of each faded flower: shake the dry stems over a container at the end of flowering. The forget-me-not also reseeds so generously that it returns on its own every year. See storing your seeds.

Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Volcanoes of Auvergne, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, test them for germination rates, and carefully sort and package them without any chemical treatment. Our belief: to give gardeners back the ability to reseed, year after year, with seeds that truly belong to them.

Turn your garden into a spring-blue carpet with these forget-me-not seeds.