Virginia Bluebells - Mertensia virginica

One of my favourite plants in the garden right now is Virginia Bluebells. This plant has distinctive bell-shaped flowers that start out pink and turn blue as they mature. If this plant resembles Pulmonaria it is because they are in the same family, Boraginaceae. My Virginia Bluebells are in bloom at the moment and I love their clusters of blue flowers! The leaves are large and oval shaped. They are a lovely light green colour that reminds me of spring! They like a partial shady location and enjoy a forest type setting. Mine are growing under the peach tree, but they don't seem to mind.


This plant will continue to flower for several weeks. Then they will die back. Bluebells are ephemeral perennials. That means that their foliage will totally disappear from the garden by July as they go dormant until next spring.

Family: Boraginaceae. Genus: Mertensia. Species: M. virginica

Common name: Virginia Bluebells, Virginia Cowslip.

Forget Me Not - Myosotis

I love blue flowers! Maybe that is why I like Forget Me Nots so much! This plant has followed us as we moved. I took a plant or two with me each time from garden to garden. They continue to come up faithfully every spring. Some years everything is covered by a blue haze for a few weeks. I never pull them up before they have finished blooming.


Once they have flowered, I pull them out if they are taking over and crowding out another important plant. I always leave a few so that they can seed themselves and I will continue to be able to enjoy them in future years. Myosotis is a biennial. The seeds will grow into small plants and then go dormant until the next spring when they bloom.

There are all kinds of legends on how this plant got it's name. One is that when God was giving out names to the plants, he forgot this one and it called out to him, "Forget me not!" Other legends are love related. A medieval knight was walking along a river with his true love. He picked her a bunch of Forget Me Nots. Because his armour was so heavy, he fell into the river, but before he hit the water, he was able to throw the bunch of blue flowers to his lady, while yelling, "Forget me not!"

There are 50 species of Myosotis. I have no idea which one I have. The first Forget Me Nots that I planted were blue. And although these plants usually have blue flowers, sometimes a plant will have pink flowers. I usually leave the pink flowering ones to go to seed. I really like the pink ones too. Myosotis also come in white, but I guess my plants don't have any white genes. Maybe I should buy a pot of white Forget Me Nots this year! Add some new genes to the pool.

Family: Boraginaceae. Genus: Myosotis.

Common name: Forget Me Not

Pulmonaria

I am going to continue my blue journey through the garden. The plant I am going to show you is called Pulmonaria.

Family: Boraginaceae. Genus: Pulmonaria. Species: Pulmonaria officinalis

Common name: Lungwort

This plant gets its name from the Latin word 'pulmo' or lung. The common name of this plant is Lungwort. The spotted leaves of the plant reminded early healers of a diseased lung and Pulmonaria was originally used to treat pulmonary infections. Pulmonaria is a herbaceous perennial. It prefers a partly shaded spot in the garden. It is one of the earliest blooming perennials. This is what it looks like in my garden. It is so nice to see this pretty colour so early in the season.