The small, delicate, blue forget-me-not flowers link the plant to the Virgin Mary. The modest, yet beautiful appearance of the flowers reflects Mary’s humility and the blue color symbolizes her purity, grace, and maternal love. With their yellow centers, the bright blue flowers resemble eyes and suggest the loving, compassionate way Mary looked at her son offering care and protection from the time he was born to the time he died on the cross. European legend links forget-me-nots to themes of love, remembrance, and devotion, qualities often associated with Mary. The preference of this forget-me-not for water is significant because water is a symbol of life and purity in Christian tradition.
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Also known as scorpion grass, this rhizomatous herbaceous perennial is in the borage family, Boraginaceae, that also includes lungwort, heliotrope, and Siberian bugloss. It is native to Europe and Asia where it grows in damp or wet habitats, such as bogs, ponds, and streams. The plant grows up to 18″ tall and has upright to decumbent angular stems. The semi-evergreen, shiny green leaves are oblong to linear and up to 4′ long. From spring to summer, branched cymes appear bearing light sky blue, 5-lobed flowers with yellow centers. The flowers are 1/4″ across and attractive to butterflies and other pollinators. The cymes resemble a coiled scorpion’s tail especially when in bud and early bloom.
Water forget-me-not likes full sun to partial shade and organic, consistently moist to wet soil, and can grow in 3″ of water. It is hardy in USDA Zones 5-9. Plants are generally healthy but are susceptible to mildew and rust. Propagation is by seed, division in early spring, and stem cuttings in summer; plants readily self seed. Best planted in masses; bushiness can be encouraged by pinching.
The genus name, Myosotis, comes from the ancient Greek words μυοσ (myos) meaning mouse’s and ωτίς (otis) meaning ear, and may refer to the resemblance of the foliage or the petals to a mouse’s ear. The specific epithet, scorpioides, comes from the Latin word scorpio, meaning scorpion, and refers to resemblance of the inflorescence to a scorpion’s tail.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia