Do you have a partially shaded spot in your flower border or rock garden where a true vibrant blue would make all the difference? If so, then let me urge you to try Anchusa or summer forget-me-not.
Anchusa is a biennial, but it can be treated as an annual.
Starting Anchusa Seed
Start the seed indoors in a flat that can be kept moist in a cool room in partial light. After all danger of frost is past, transplant to the bed or border.
The habit of the dwarf Anchusa ‘Blue Bird’ is to have bushy, coarse foliaged plants about 18″ inches high. This variety mixes well either in the garden or the bouquet.
It isn’t fussy as long as it has plenty of water during the growing season, although the soil should have good drainage.
Slightly Acid Soil
A well-worked, slightly acid soil will suit Anchusa fine. From mid-summer until frost, you will be rewarded with graceful sprays of forget-me-not like blossoms. Its rich indigo hue is enhanced by a white eye. To keep it blooming at its peak, remove all dead blooms.
Since a true blue is hard to find among annuals, this Anchusa is just the thing to complement snowy whites, pale yellows, and pinks found among annuals.
This is one flower that will thrive even in a small city garden. It is equally at home left in the border for show or in arrangements.
You may be interested in a taller growing variety for the back of the border. It is a perennial that grows three to five feet in height. These, too, can be grown from seeds. They are free-flowering with long showy heads of gentian blue. This is the Anchusa called ‘Dropmore.’