Forget me nots are pretty. Pretty to look at and pretty feckless.I always think of them as the reckless teenagers of the plant world.... arriving when and where you least expect them, sowing their seed all over the place , and living where other, more fussy plants, wouldn't survive.
Like teenagers ,you can't forget myosotis sylvatica. A few arrived years ago in the garden, their seeds blown on the wind from another village garden...and since then they've colonised one side of our cottage, where it's shady.
They're everywhere......and no matter how much I pull them up in late summer when their roots turn a rough rusty brown , they've already been at it....germinating madly , without a care in the world. I don't even have to shake their seeds as I pull them up...they've already done the job for me.
But their charm overwhelms me every year...their cheery little blue blooms with cheeky yellow centres are such a lovely sight to see at this time of year. Especially this year...when it's done nothing but rain for the last ten days...the forgot me nots are quite riotous, as they love damp conditions and shade.
So how did they get therir name? Well there's a number of legends associated with them. The first is from mediaeval times.A knight and his amour went a walking by a river....he was holding a bouquet of myosotis (well interflora and more flashy flowers weren't readily available then) .
He must have been showing off his armour ( how big, how heavy, have a look at my chain mail type of thing) because the weight of the armour caused him to fall into the water. He then threw the bouquet of flowers at her....shouting "forget me not".
There's another quite similar one - this one takes place on the banks of the River Danube where a young man and his girlfriend were walking. they saw some blue flowers there, on an islet.The young man crossed the river, picked the flowers , but then got caught up in the current on the way back.
He threw them at her crying "forget me knot" and disappeared.The girlfriend never forgot him and wore the flowers in her hair until her death.
Only in April and May I hope...the seeds would have been an absolute nightmare to comb out any later in the year.
There's some Christian legends as well. One says that God was walking through the Garden of Eden (after the creation) and he spotted a lovely little blue flower.He asked its name but the shy little flower said "I'm afraid I have forgotten Lord." But God replied "forget me not.Yet I will not forget thee."
In another version...God names all of the plants except one.The blue flower cries out "Forget me not Lord" and God says "that shall be your name"
And since then, these lovely hardy annuals can never be forgotten. How could they be? They turn up each year, come rain, come shade...and they've definitely lost their shyness.
And there's so many of them, that I can fill jugs and jugs with them, and they won't be missed in the garden.
Today's track is one which was released last year from Yellowire. It didn't seem to do much at the time, but the more I hear it, the more I like it.In fact I absolutely adore it! So catchy, especially the album version from Machines on Fire.
And I really think it should be released. Like the flower, it shouldn't be forgotten....especially now when it seems so appropriate.
"When is it summer?"
Please click the link below
http://vimeo.com/27049292
Like teenagers ,you can't forget myosotis sylvatica. A few arrived years ago in the garden, their seeds blown on the wind from another village garden...and since then they've colonised one side of our cottage, where it's shady.
They're everywhere......and no matter how much I pull them up in late summer when their roots turn a rough rusty brown , they've already been at it....germinating madly , without a care in the world. I don't even have to shake their seeds as I pull them up...they've already done the job for me.
But their charm overwhelms me every year...their cheery little blue blooms with cheeky yellow centres are such a lovely sight to see at this time of year. Especially this year...when it's done nothing but rain for the last ten days...the forgot me nots are quite riotous, as they love damp conditions and shade.
So how did they get therir name? Well there's a number of legends associated with them. The first is from mediaeval times.A knight and his amour went a walking by a river....he was holding a bouquet of myosotis (well interflora and more flashy flowers weren't readily available then) .
He must have been showing off his armour ( how big, how heavy, have a look at my chain mail type of thing) because the weight of the armour caused him to fall into the water. He then threw the bouquet of flowers at her....shouting "forget me not".
There's another quite similar one - this one takes place on the banks of the River Danube where a young man and his girlfriend were walking. they saw some blue flowers there, on an islet.The young man crossed the river, picked the flowers , but then got caught up in the current on the way back.
He threw them at her crying "forget me knot" and disappeared.The girlfriend never forgot him and wore the flowers in her hair until her death.
Only in April and May I hope...the seeds would have been an absolute nightmare to comb out any later in the year.
There's some Christian legends as well. One says that God was walking through the Garden of Eden (after the creation) and he spotted a lovely little blue flower.He asked its name but the shy little flower said "I'm afraid I have forgotten Lord." But God replied "forget me not.Yet I will not forget thee."
In another version...God names all of the plants except one.The blue flower cries out "Forget me not Lord" and God says "that shall be your name"
And since then, these lovely hardy annuals can never be forgotten. How could they be? They turn up each year, come rain, come shade...and they've definitely lost their shyness.
And there's so many of them, that I can fill jugs and jugs with them, and they won't be missed in the garden.
Today's track is one which was released last year from Yellowire. It didn't seem to do much at the time, but the more I hear it, the more I like it.In fact I absolutely adore it! So catchy, especially the album version from Machines on Fire.
And I really think it should be released. Like the flower, it shouldn't be forgotten....especially now when it seems so appropriate.
"When is it summer?"
Please click the link below
http://vimeo.com/27049292
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