Forget-me-not Victoria Mixed

The mixed form: clear blue, rose-pink and pure white on the same compact plants, flowering together from April to June at 15 to 20cm. Slightly tidier and bushier than the plain species, which is why it suits a container better.

Whether you want the mix rather than the blue is a real question. Forget-me-not blue does something specific in a spring planting. It is a cold clear colour that makes tulips and wallflowers above it read more vividly. Break that up with pink and white and you get something prettier at close range and considerably less effective as a background. Use the mix where it will be looked at, in a window box or beside a path, and use the plain blue where it has a job to do under bulbs.

It is a biennial, so sow May to July for flowers the following spring, and it self-seeds reliably with the colour mix mostly holding. Expect the same unlovely finish as any forget-me-not: mildewed grey plants by late June that want pulling out rather than admiring.