This spring-flowering plant and its cultivars, typically with blue flowers, are the familiar forget-me-nots of gardens.

It is a short-lived herbaceous perennial plant, growing to 12–30 cm (5–12 in) tall by 15 cm (6 in) wide, with hairy leaves and a profusion of flowers with petals longer than their tube, pink in bud then opening disc-shaped, intensely sky-blue with yellow centres in spring.

Stace (2011)[2] describes this plant as having the following characteristics: Widely cultivated throughout the temperate world, it is particularly associated with spring bedding schemes involving other spring-flowering subjects, notably daffodils, tulips, wallflowers, and primulas.

[4] The cultivars 'Bluesylva'[5] and the compact 'Blue Ball'[6] have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

It can be found along much of the east coast of Scotland and areas in the South West, although missing from most of the Highlands, Orkney, Shetland, and the Outer Hebrides.