Germander speedwell

How to recognise it

Habit

Low, 10–30 cm, with prostrate stems that root at the nodes and upturned flowering stems.

Leaf

Opposite, oval, 1–3 cm, coarsely toothed, hairy and almost stalkless.

Flower

Sky blue with darker veins and a white eye, about 1 cm across, with four unequal lobes and two stamens. In loose spikes on long stalks from the leaf axils.

Stem

Two lines of long white hairs on opposite sides, switching sides at each pair of leaves. The best identification feature.

Fruit/Seed

A flattened, heart-shaped capsule, shorter than the calyx, with small seeds.

Confusion with

Slender speedwell has long, thread-like flower stalks each with a single flower, and small kidney-shaped leaves. Heath speedwell is hairy all round the stem and has pale lilac flowers in dense spikes. Forget-me-nots have five petals, a yellow eye and alternate leaves.

Flowering: April–June · Pruning: July and September

Why grow it?

• Long flowering from April to June, busy with hoverflies and small solitary bees.
• Bright blue is an unusual colour in grass: a lovely accent in a flowering lawn.
• Tolerates occasional mowing and stays low: ideal for lawn edges and verges.
• Also grows in light shade under a hedge or at a woodland edge.
• Hoverfly larvae eat aphids: attracting hoverflies helps the vegetable garden.

Germander speedwell: where does it grow best?

• In the wild: grassland, verges, dykes, hedgerows, woodland edges and clearings in broadleaved woods.
• Sun to partial shade.
• Ordinary soil that is not too wet: sand, loam or clay; preferably not too rich, or the grass will crowd it out.
• In the garden: a flowering lawn that you mow less often, the foot of a hedge or the sunny front of a wild border.

Goes well with

• Bugle: Also blue and low; flowers at the same time in the same places.
• Oxeye daisy: White and yellow above the blue, in May–June.
• Cuckooflower: Lilac flowers in April–May, for a slightly damper lawn.
• Daisy: Together the basis of a flowering lawn.

Germander speedwell: when and how to plant it?

1. Buy plants from a native-plant nursery and plant them in March–April or September–October.
2. Space them 20–25 cm apart; in a lawn, set a plug into a hole cut in the turf.
3. You can sow in September–October in pots or on a bare patch: scatter the fine seed thinly and cover it with no more than a thin layer of sand.
4. Leave the pots outside over winter; the seedlings appear in spring.
5. Water during dry spells in the first weeks after planting.
6. Never dig up plants from the wild.

Care

Water

Only after planting. Not needed after that.

Feeding

Avoid it: on poor soil it holds its own better against grass.

Mowing

Leave a strip unmown until flowering is over, then mow in July at 5–8 cm. In a hay meadow, cut in July and in September and remove the cuttings.

Spreading

Spreads gently by rooting stems; simply pull out what is too much.

Self-seeding

Leave the flowering stems until the capsules are ripe, and it will seed itself.

Tip: Leave a strip of your lawn unmown until early July: in April–May, blue speedwell, daisies and clover often appear there by themselves.

Pruning and mowing

Pruning months: July and September.

When: After flowering, in July, and a second time in September.

How:

• Mow at 5–8 cm; this spares the creeping stems.
• Leave the cuttings for a few days so the seeds can drop, then rake them off.
• Removing the cuttings keeps the soil poor and the grass weak.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Division

In March–April or September, lift a rooted stem with some soil and replant it elsewhere.

Seed

Ripens in summer; sow in September–October outdoors in pots or on a bare patch.

Germander speedwell: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −30 °C.

• Stays partly green in winter: the low stems and leaves overwinter above ground.
• Fully hardy, to about −30 °C.
• Leave the plant alone in autumn; in March it carries on growing straight away.

Diseases and pests

• Crowded out by grass: On rich soil the grass grows faster. Stop feeding and remove the cuttings.
• Woolly galls: White, woolly tufts at the shoot tips are galls caused by a gall midge. Harmless: leave them.
• Mown too early: If you mow short in April–May, you will never see flowers. Spare a strip or mow after flowering.
• Slugs: They nibble young shoots in spring. The plant usually recovers.

Through the year

• March: The plant starts growing again. Plant.
• April: Flowering begins. Do not mow the flowering strip.
• May: Full flower, visited by hoverflies and small bees.
• June: Last flowers. The seed ripens.
• July: Mow at 5–8 cm after flowering; remove the cuttings.
• September: Second cut. Plant or divide. Sow in pots.
• October: Sow and plant. Leave the pots outside.
• December: Rest; the low green stems overwinter.

Did you know?

• Chamaedrys means ‘dwarf oak’, after the leaves that resemble small oak leaves; this is also where the French name petit-chêne comes from.
• In English it is also called bird’s-eye, after the white eye in the blue flower.
• Picked flowers soon drop their petals, so it is not a plant for a vase.