Nemophila menziesii Prince Gustav’s Eyes - Baby Blue Eyes Seeds

Nemophila menziesii 'Gustav's Eyes', also known as Baby Blue Eyes, is an adorable little annual plant with a creeping, mat-forming habit, producing very bright flared cup-shaped flowers with iridescent sky blue petals and big white centres. The plant develops delicately cut, pubescent, light green foliage. Being a lover of cool, partially shaded areas, it is perfect for damp rock gardens, borders, or as a ground cover. In window boxes and pots, its delicate flowers can be admired from up close.

The American West is the cradle of the remarkable Baby Blue Eyes. This small annual plant of the Boraginaceae family is found in Western California, Nevada, Oregon and Wyoming. It thrives in the moist, shady valleys, meadows and the humus rich undergrowth of these regions and can be found up to 2000 m altitude. The Gustav's Eyes variety, which originates from this species, quickly forms small, spreading, more or less prostrate clumps, that do not exceed 20 to 25 cm in height and width. It is characterized by its bright blooms, which last from July to October depending on when the seeds were sown. They appear as ephemeral flowers that continually renew themselves above a very dissected, serrated, downy, light green foliage. Its bright corollas are 4 cm in diameter and consist of 5 iridescent azure blue petals joined together in a flared cup-shape and marked by white centres. They are gathered in clusters at the tips of hairy flower stems. The nectar-rich, melliferous flowers give way to small capsules containing blond seeds. 

Nemophilia are ideal ground covers for making borders or flowerbeds in rockeries or at the front of flower beds or for making carpets in moist soil, under the cover of trees or shrubs, or simply for decorating basins and flower pots that can be admired up close. They can be associated with Corydalis, which also like moist conditions and partial shade, or with Limnanthes, in the sun.