Myosotis Species, Woodland Forget-Me-Not

The people who call this species invasive are confusing it with water forget-me-nots (Myosotis semperflorens), which are on the invasive ...Read Morespecies lists of several states. It's hard for anyone but a botanist to tell these two species apart.

Woodland forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica) make wonderful sheets of true blue underplanting everything and unifying the woodland garden in May (Boston Z 6a). I don't find they can outcompete many garden plants, they just fill in the spaces between the other perennials. The blue complements every other color. I don't find pink or white forget-me-nots nearly as effective.

They like cool conditions with light shade and consistent soil moisture, and they hate hot humid summers. I treat them as biennials. Without irrigation, many seedlings starting from seed shed in June will die in summer droughts. In the southeast, this species doesn't do well south of Z8 not because of the lack of winter chill but because the summer heat and humidity encourage fungal diseases.

Most plants die after going to seed, and those that don't never bloom as well the next spring. In my unirrigated garden, I pull the plants up in June when seed has ripened and pile them somewhere dry, then spread the dried debris on beds when the summer heat breaks in mid-August, to sow seeds and give the seedlings time to bulk up before frost.

Sometimes, for no reason I can discern, a planting will fail in part of the garden and need to be re-started from seed taken from elsewhere.

Under garden conditions, this species is much less demanding of consistent soil moisture than the water forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides), which is ecologically damaging to natural wetlands. Woodland forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica) need garden conditions to prosper and do not invade natural areas in the Northeast.

Update 11/2013: In one garden, these have happily seeded into a hot full-sun (but well irrigated) planting of Sedum spurium. I've watched them grow happily all summer. This wasn't a hot summer here, and perhaps that has something to do with their success. Or perhaps it's that plants don't read gardening websites.

To the person who gave a negative comment... These are awesome plants that need no care! I love it when the volunteers pop up in unexpe...Read Morected places. No bloom is a bad bloom! Do note that I am also the type of gardener who does not plant in a straight line.

Not sure why this is only listed to Zone 8. I've had this growing for years in my zone 10a garden. It usually peters out by the time th...Read Moree hot summer weather arrives, but it does reseed for me, however not to a fault or to the point of being invasive. Does best with morning sun and afternoon shade here. Definitely a harninger of spring and superb with primulas, impatiens, and spring bulbs.

Awesome perrenial for me! Stays nice and compact, abundant true blue, tiny flowers. Funny that mine seem to do better in more sun than s...Read Morehade! I don't mind if it spreads in my garden beds because it's lovely and tough!

I love my little dwarf 4-get-me-nots. Not a problem for me becoming weedy. Just the opposite. Hard to keep them going in my zone. I'm wis...Read Morehing for them to self-sew in mass but never happens.

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...Read More 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 ...Read Morein 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 i...Read Moret 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, b...Read Moreut 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 gr...Read Moreeen. 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 ...Read Moreare 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...Read More 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 flo...Read Morewers 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 f...Read Moreorget-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...Read More 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).