PlantFiles: Forget-Me-Not
Myosotis sylvatica

I know it reseeds..Once planted and let it go to seed, your garden will never be without it. Its name suits it well. But..they give early spring color and look pretty with spring bulbs. Its roots do not go deep, just on the surface. About end of May they are gone..pull out the declined (and already dried) plants (goes easy), shake out the seeds and enjoy its many babies next spring. My garden will never be without Forget-Me-Not, but I like that.
White and pink varieties will mostly flower blue after reseeding.

When I moved into this house I found a couple demure little forget me not plants growing in the lawn, shoveled them out and plopped them in a bed and forgot about it. It took those little starts about two years to turn that section of bed into a carpet of happy blue every spring. They seed with explosive force, sending seeds shooting everywhere.

They aren't hard for me to keep out of the other beds; I simply mulch over or weed out seedlings before they have a chance to bloom and seed. I've been able to give away lots of baby plants and lots of little bouquets. They're maintenance free except for yanking up the rocky-looking mother plants once they've gone to seed.

If I had one quibble with them it would be that they spread themselves out luxuriantly in spots that will be empty after they seed and die, so I have to take that into account when I plan my beds.

Grew this from a seed packet - I wanted a ground cover for a shady area. The first year some green foliage came up, I wasn't even sure it was not a weed, but this spring (one season after planting from seed) it was the first plant to be green after a very harsh winter. I still suspected it was a weed until it finally bloomed here in zone 5 in April. I am happy with the beautiful but tiny blue blooms, the foliage however is unremarkable. I don't know how attractive it will be as a ground cover after the blooms are spent. Positives- easy to grow, pretty blue color in spring, will self seed and maintain itself without much tending. Negative - lackluster foliage after blooms fade, possibly invasive, blooms are tiny.

You mean there are people who grow this on purpose?

I haven't let one go to seed in my yard through three seasons now, but they still come up over and over and over and over. I pull out the seedlings all summer, from all of my beds.

The previous owner neglected the garden for seven years, and these seem to have rather taken over. The seedlings make up a substantial portion of my compost pile. At least they are easy to pull.

Now that the platycodons that we interplanted it with are pretty much gone for the year, we can see the Myosotis again, and it's still green. What a happy surprise! It does seem to have spread a bit, but it has a concrete path on one side and a lawn on the other, so there's really no place bad it can go. I love this plant.

I love this plant. It is scattered all about the perennial beds, rock gardns and in the lawn. It stays green here all year. Its roots are not deep and it is easy to get rid of when it has encroached somewhere it shouldn't .

Something about this plant is so happy and delightful. I'm hoping to have Lots some day.

Once established this plant reseeds freely and will pop up almost everywhere in the garden. Control is easy though as it tends to be easy to pull up. On the downside, if you allow it to go to seed the seeds stick to clothing and animals and are a real nuisense to pull off.

This plant self-sows anywhere it is happy; allowing new seedlings to develop will give a good range of flower colors and timing. The flowers continue to appear on growing stalks, giving the appearance of a cloud of blue surrounding spring bulbs to a magnificent effect.

The foliage becomes very tattered after winter, and old leaves should be carefully removed to help decrease fungal infections in wet spring conditions.

Planting seeds immediately after they are ready (late spring) ensures new plants will be big enough to bloom the following year, but the flowering will not be as prolific or prolonged. Delaying planting until fall often results in delayed flowering, but ultimately bigger and better flowering when the plants are better-established.

Self-sown colonies show good diversity of flower color: all shades of pink and blue are possible, some plants display pink and blue flowers at the same time. Some plants have white flowers. The color does not come true when allowed to freely pollinate, however.

From the Successful Gardening book...

"Forget-me-nots combine well with spring bulbs. An attractive combination is blue forget-me-nots with yellow tulips. After most spring bulbs fade, the forget-me-nots continue to bloom and hide the dying foliage of the bulbs."

Forget-me-not prefers partial shade and a well-drained loamy soil. Tiny blue flowers appear in early spring.

The plant is short-lived and often acts as a biennial or annual. Allow it to self-sow so that replacement plants are always available.

This is the "true" Forget-Me-Not, not to be confused with Cynoglossum amabile (Chinese Forget-Me-Not).