Forget-me-Not
Blooms: Summer
Language
Friendship, loving remembrance, and fidelity (Victorian)
Emblem
State Flower of Alaska
Mythology/ Folklore
In a German legend, after the earth was created, God went to each plant and animal and gave each a name. As God finished and was getting ready to leave, he heard a little voice at his feet saying “what about me?” He bent down and picked up the little plant whom he had forgotten, and said “Because I forgot once, I shall never forget you again, and that shall be your name.”
The Christ Child was sitting on Mary's lap one day and said that he wished that future generations could see her eyes. He touched her eyes and then waved his hand over the ground and blue forget-me-nots appeared, hence the name forget-me-not.
In another legend, the little flower cried out, "Forget-me-not!" as Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden.
In Mill's “History of Chivalry,” is given another story of origin with less happy ending. The lover, when trying to pick blossoms of the myosotis for his lady-love, was drowned, his last words as he threw the flowers on the bank being “Forget me Not.”
Another theory suggests because the leaves taste so bad, once you have eaten them, you will never forget them.
Language
Friendship, loving remembrance, and fidelity (Victorian)
Emblem
State Flower of Alaska
Mythology/ Folklore
In a German legend, after the earth was created, God went to each plant and animal and gave each a name. As God finished and was getting ready to leave, he heard a little voice at his feet saying “what about me?” He bent down and picked up the little plant whom he had forgotten, and said “Because I forgot once, I shall never forget you again, and that shall be your name.”
The Christ Child was sitting on Mary's lap one day and said that he wished that future generations could see her eyes. He touched her eyes and then waved his hand over the ground and blue forget-me-nots appeared, hence the name forget-me-not.
In another legend, the little flower cried out, "Forget-me-not!" as Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden.
In Mill's “History of Chivalry,” is given another story of origin with less happy ending. The lover, when trying to pick blossoms of the myosotis for his lady-love, was drowned, his last words as he threw the flowers on the bank being “Forget me Not.”
Another theory suggests because the leaves taste so bad, once you have eaten them, you will never forget them.
History/ Modern Use
In the 15th century Germany, it was supposed that the wearers of the flower would not be forgotten by their lovers. It was often worn by ladies as a sign of faithfulness and enduring love.
Egyptian healers believed that if you placed the leaves of this plant over your eyes during certain times of the year, you would have visions. The flower was considered sacred to the Egyptian god Thoth, god of wisdom. Henry IV adopted the flower as his symbol during his exile in 1398, and retained the symbol upon his return to England the following year.
In Siberia, forget-me-not was used to treat syphilis.
Literature/ Arts
Armenian Poet Shiraz regarding the origin of forget-me-not:
“It was in the golden morning of the early world, when an angel sat weeping outside the closed gates of Eden. He had fallen from his high estate through loving a daughter of the earth, nor was he permitted to enter again until she whom he loved had planted the flowers of the forget-me-not in every corner of the world. He returned to the earth and assisted her, and they went hand-in-hand over the world planting the forget-me-not. When their task was ended, they entered Paradise together; for the fair woman, without tasting the bitterness of death, became immortal like the angel, whose love her beauty had won, when she sat by the river twining the forget-me-not in her hair.”
Henry David Thoreau wrote, "The mouse-ear forget-me-not, Myosotis laxa, has now extended its racemes (?) very much, and hangs over the edge of the brook. It is one of the most interesting minute flowers. It is the more beautiful for being small and unpretending; even flowers must be modest."
In Evangeline, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote,
“Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of Heaven,
Blossom the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.”
In his 1947 long poem "Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction," Wallace Stevens mentions the forget-me-not, using its scientific Greek-derived name:
“...It observes the effortless weather turning blue
And sees the myosotis on its bush."
