Field Forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis)

Collins, 200; Readers Digest, 246

This cheery low flowering, softly hairy, sky-blue perennial has a long season from April through to October.  It is common in our chalk downland preferring dry and sometimes sandier soils.  The petals are concave with a yellow centre.  It is said that in Germany a Knight with his maiden bent down to pick a bunch of these flowers and overpowered by the weight of his armour fell into a river.  As he drowned he threw the bunch of flowers to his beloved with the cry “forget-me-not”.