Remember Forget-Me-Nots!

Okay, corny headline. But I do want to use this blog – the second of my “blue for April” blogs – to  ‘remember’ how much I adore the effect of forget-me-nots in the spring garden. Sometimes, on a lovely May morning, as I’m looking at the robins bathing in the lily pond in my back garden, I’ll squint a little and imagine what it would look like without that lacy froth of light blue under the ‘Red Jade’ crabapple tree.  Dirt, that’s what it would look like, and the emerging green of perennials, of course. But not nearly as enchanting as the soft blue cloud that floats around the lily pond.

Pond-Forget-me-nots

Forget-me-not – Myosotis sylvatica. The botanical name comes from the classic Greek word for the genus, muosōtis, from mus- ‘mouse’ +ous, ōt- ‘ear’. And the specific epithet sylvatica means “of the forest” or woodland.  So, mouse-eared plant of the woodland.  As for the common name, it comes from the German: Vergiss-mein-nicht (appropriate, because it’s a European plant)   I can’t think of another plant that gives so much and asks so little. Reasonable soil with a little moisture, that’s it. And when I say “soil”, I’m measuring in square inches, because that’s the way forget-me-nots plant themselves. Biennial, they only need a tiny patch of ground to germinate those prolific seeds in late spring, content to grow their roots and develop a small rosette of leaves in the first summer.

Myosotis sylvatica-Forget-me-nots

Then next spring, up they pop and away they go, flowering for weeks on end, their sky-blue blossoms a tonic with all the yellow spring lavishes around – like basket-of-gold (Aurinia saxatilis), seen here.

Aurinia saxatilis & Myosotis sylvatica

But speaking of yellow, forget-me-nots exhibit an interesting evolutionary trait developed in order to attract pollinators. But first, some basic botany: they are protogynous, meaning the flowers initially have a female phase, then a male phase. The nectaries are located below the ovary, which is at the base of the corolla. Around the opening to the corolla is a fleshy yellow ring which is a nectar guide. Once the bee has spotted that yellow ring and zeroed in on the nectaries and/or pollen (if in the male stage), the plant has ensured its succession. (Oh, how they ensure their succession, with copious seeds.)  Even cooler, once the flower has been pollinated, the yellow ring fades to a creamy brown – a signal to the bees that there is no longer any nectar. It should be noted that honey bees will not come to your garden for just a few forget-me-nots; they need loads of them to make it worth the while of the ‘scout’ honey bee whose role in the colony is to find sizable populations of nectar- and pollen-rich plants and then do the ‘waggle dance’ to instruct the forager bees on how to locate them.  (For more blue plants for bees, have a look at this blog.)

Apis mellifera on Myosotis sylvatica

Forget-me-nots offer up another sweet vignette in my pond garden: insinuating themselves innocently into my Japanese hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’).

Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola' & Myosotis sylvatica

For many years, my front garden in May was a candy floss confection of the small-flowered pink rhododendrons ‘Olga Mezitt’ and ‘Aglo’ with loads of pink tulips and blue grape hyacinths. But it was the forget-me-nots that were the frilly icing on the cake.

Rhododendron 'Olza Mezitt' & Myosotis sylvatica

And much as I loathe their wanton (wandering?) ways, the lily-of-the-valley, below, do look rather fetching in the embrace of forget-me-nots. Still, sweet-scented though it is, little Convallaria majalis has proven to be a tenacious invader of much of my garden, and, unlike forget-me-nots, cannot be uprooted easily.

Convallaria majalis & Myosotis sylvatica

When I visit Toronto’s spectacular Spadina House gardens in May, I am captivated by the billowing cloud of blue beneath the brilliant spring flowers in the borders surrounding the four-square potager. It brings all those colours together into a cohesive, beautiful picture.

Spadina House Gardens-Forget-me-nots

Here they are with beautiful white bleeding hearts (Lamprocapnos spectabilis ‘Alba’), formerly Dicentra)….

Spadina House-Bleeding hearts & forget-me-nots

…and a closer look at that lovely duo.

Lamprocapnos spectabilis & Myosotis sylvatica
Ever since the reasons may be mental or bodily, it is significant to conclude the concern to buy viagra italy facilitate with the healing procedures. Experienced shoppers can find everything online from viagra cialis generic novels to computers. Libido pills for men, are they are a complex combination of, collective action individual behaviour, simple sensory experiences higher cognition stable characteristics of the individual the environment chance factors as Ruut continue reading my page viagra line Veenhoven states in his study. The pill cheap viagra from uk icks.org is a complete benefit for those people who have been facing the problem since a long time.
Here are some more sweet Spadina House forget-me-not pairings. This is very early, with Arabis caucasica ‘Rosea’.

Arabis caucasica 'Rosea' & Myosotis sylvatica

Then come the tulips, like pretty yellow Tulipa batalini ‘Bright Gem’….

Tulipa batalini 'Bright Gem' & Myosotis sylvatica

…and these wonderful ‘Daydream’ tulips. That’s lungwort (Pulmonaria saccharata) at the right, rear.

Tulipa 'Daydream' & Myosotis sylvatica

One of the early hardy spurges, creeping Euphorbia myrsinites, looks quite fetching with a sprinkling of forget-me-nots.

Euphorbia myrsinites & Myosotis sylvatica

And forget-me-nots flower for such a long time, they’re ready and waiting when the late-flowering poet’s narcissus, N. poeticus ‘Recurvus’ starts flowering at Spadina House.

Myosotis sylvatica & Narcissus poeticus

I often travel to my old home province of British Columbia in spring, and when I stop in at Butchart Gardens in Victoria, it’s abundantly clear that nobody does forget-me-nots like them.  Look at this lovely carpet under lily-flowered tulips.

Butchart Gardens-Tulips & Forget-me-nots

Although I’m happy with the garden variety forget-me-not that’s been with me for years, there’s a seed strain with more vibrant blue colour called ‘Victoria Blue’. I suspect that’s what’s growing here at Butchart with orange wallflowers.

Butchart Gardens-Wallflowers & Forget-me-nots

Forget-me-nots come in light pink and pure white, often occurring naturally in naturalized seeds. But you can also buy seed of those colours to have an effect like this with tulips, at Butchart Gardens.

Butchart Gardens-blue & white forget-me-nots

Finally, a little duo from Victoria’s Horticulture Centre of the Pacific (I’ve blogged about HCP and their lovely Garry Oak woodland before). Isn’t this sweet? Bright-pink chives (Allium schoeneprasum), likely ‘Forescate’, with forget-me-nots.  Easy-peasy for the herb garden.

Allium schoeneprasum 'Forescate' & Myosotis sylvatica

Happy spring!

Designing with Little Blue Spring Blossoms

It’s April!  And the snow is gone!! Following through with my New Year’s resolution to blog about one colour per month, that means it’s my blue month.

Blue Flowers-ThePaintboxGarden

I’d like to show you five of my favourite “little blue spring blossoms”, with some good ideas for using them in combination with other spring plants

(1) Where I live in Toronto, early spring is resplendent with the wondrous sight of “blue lawns” carpeted with tiny Siberian squill (Scilla siberica).  This is not a bulb to plant if you’re the kind of gardener who likes things neat and tidy.  By nature, it’s a spreader and it will spread far and wide: into neighbouring flower beds – even into your neighbour’s flower beds! But it is harmless, and unlike weedy grasses, after flowering it obligingly disappears below ground until next spring. Since we tend to see them in the thousands, it’s always a revelation to get down on the ground and look up into one beautiful little blossom.

Scilla sibirica

Look at that bright blue pollen!  Incidentally, honey bees, bumble bees and other native bees use that abundant pollen, as well as the nectar and pollen of two of my other blue blossoms, lungwort and grape hyacinths, below, to provision their hives and nests in early spring.

Blue Bee Plants

Speaking of carpets, what about this great vignette at Toronto’s Spadina House,  below? Isn’t it a brilliant way to dress up the legs of boring old forsythia?

Scilla siberica & forsythia

I love mixing other early spring bulbs with Siberian squill. This is a classic combination with the bulb I’ll be talking about next, Scilla forbesii or glory-of-the-snow (lower right corner, below).  Many gardeners still know this blue bulb with the starry white centre as Chionodoxa, but the taxonomists have done the genetic sequencing and lumped it with the scillas. It tends to be a less aggressive colonizer than S. siberica, but does multiply nicely, and looks enchanting mixed with the squill under a forsythia.

Squill-Glory of the snow-Forsythia

Another good partner for Siberian squill is a very much underused spring corm, Greek windflower, Anemone blanda. Though it comes in blues and mauve-pinks, this is ‘White Shades’, below.

Scilla sibirica & Anemone blanda 'White Splendour'

Because they emerge so early, some of our native, northeastern spring ephemeral wildflowers can also be paired with Siberian squill.  This is bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) with its starry flowers just opening.

Scillal siberica & Sanguinaria canadensis JPG

(2) My second little blue spring blossom is glory-of-the-snow (Scilla forbesii, syn. Chionodoxa forbesii).  Here we see it emerging through ornamental grasses.

Scilla forbesii-Glory of the snow

The pairing below is one of my favourites, of glory-of-the-snow with the gorgeous spring fumewort, Corydalis solida ‘George Baker’.  I’ve blogged about these beautifully-coloured corydalis before, and can’t say enough about them

Scilla forbesii & Corydalis 'Beth Evans'

(3) One of the earliest spring perennials, appearing with the hellebores, is lungwort (Pulmonaria).  There are a number of species and hybrids, the most common being Pulmonaria saccharata, which tends to have pink buds emerging as blueish flowers atop the spotted leaves that gave the genus its common name. (In the medieval Doctrine of Signatures, the spotted leaves were likened to the spots on the lung that were caused by pleurisy and other “pulmonary” ailments, so it was used as a kind of magical medicinal plant).  Here it is at Toronto’s Casa Loma castle gardens with spring’s earliest “daisy”, perennial leopardbane daisy (Doronicum caucasicum).

Pulmonaria saccharata & Doronicum caucasicum

But to get true blue flowers in lungwort, you need to find plants from the P. angustifolia and P. longifolia groups with unspotted green leaves, such as ‘Blue Ensign’, below.

Pulmonaria 'Blue Ensign'

At Casa Loma, I love seeing these blue lungworts used in the shady woodland garden with native Ontario wildflowers like merrybells (Uvularia grandiflora), below.

Pulmonaria angustifolia & Uvularia

(4) Thinking about Casa Loma brings me to my next blue flower for spring, Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica).  This is the famous slope below the castle in early May, shimmering with the blue of this native perennial.

Mertensia virginica-Virginia bluebells
Reproductive system in men and http://raindogscine.com/?attachment_id=87 cialis online cialis women may be stimulated to function with maximum efficiency with the help of Patanjali Ashwashila capsule. Kamagra is categorized as ED drugs raindogscine.com cheap cialis and available in tablets of different strengths. purchase cialis online http://raindogscine.com/anina-gana-en-la-plata-y-conquista-londres/ These benefits make it a part of Booster capsules to cure weak ejaculation problem. If one feels allergic after taking the medicine, they should consult with a physician as cialis australia online soon as possible.
And in Casa Loma’s shady woodland, Virginia bluebells are grown with bright yellow woodland poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum), below, to beautiful effect.

Mertensia virginica-Casa Loma

.Here’s a closer look at that classic combination.

Mertensia & Stylophorum diphyllum

And there couldn’t be a nicer companion for ubiquitous ostrich ferns (Matteucia struthiopteris) than Virginia bluebells.

Mertensia virginica & Matteucia struthioperis

Two more excellent woodland pairings: Virginia bluebell with yellow barrenwort (Epimedium x versicolor ‘Sulphureum’)…..

Mertensia virginica & Epimedium x versicolor 'Sulphureum'

…and with red barrenwort (Epimedium x rubrum).

Mertensia virginica & Epimedium x rubrum

(5) My fifth blue spring blossom is grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum). With its spikes of grape-scented, indigo-blue bells, this is a bulb that everyone can grow.

Muscari armeniacum-Grape Hyacinth

It pairs beautifully with the earliest hardy spurge, Euphorbia polychroma.

Muscari armeniacum & Euphorbia polychroma

And, of course, it looks fabulous with mid-season tulips, especially planted in a sinuous blue stream as here, at the Toronto Botanical Garden.

Muscari -Grape Hyacinths & tulips

It’s particularly effective with darling pink Tulipa saxatilis.

Muscari armeniacum & Tulipa saxatialis

Want more spring blue-and-pink?  You can’t beat grape hyacinths with pink false rockcress (Arabis caucasica var. rosea), one of the earliest perennials to emerge.

Muscari armeniacum & Arabis caucasica var. rosea

And in my own garden, I’ve loved the classic, all-blue combination of grape hyacinths and biennial forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica).

Myosotis sylvatica & Muscari armeniacum

Let me finish with a little tribute to blue: a tiny bouquet of perfumed grape hyacinths with confederate violets (Viola sororia f. priceana) and forget-me-nots.

Muscarii-Myosotis-Viola

And those forget-me-nots?  They have demanded their very own blog. Coming soon!