I Will Not Forget

It’s hard to forget the forget-me-nots as they so obligingly reseed themselves every year. I tossed one handful of native seeds into my yard the year I moved in, 1990, and they’ve been happily sending out seeds every year, moving around the yard like a cloud.

Forget-me-nots originated in New Zealand but grow all over the world, even in more frozen regions, and so they appear in art and literature the world over, all through history.

This is Myosotis arvensis, or Field Forget-me-nots, growing better in sunny areas. They are biennials, meaning the seed sprouts and grows one year, overwintering and often dying back to the soil, then sprouting and blooming as soon as possible the following spring. In my yard, they set seed in mid to late summer, the seeds sprout in late summer or early fall and those are the ones that bloom the following spring.

And today I will change my header to reflect their blooming.

I let them sprout in my lawn, which I don’t cut until some time in May and which is primarily wildflowers anyway, and all through my garden, even moving them to pots and windowboxes for spring color. They’ll bloom for at least four weeks, and the seeds develop just in time for the beginning of the backyard birds’ migration. I also use them as cut flowers.