Cynoglossum hungaricum

The pink hound's tongue, from the grasslands of central and eastern Europe, and a species you will not often find in a British seed catalogue. Tall branching sprays of small forget-me-not flowers in a clean, clear pink, above rough hairy blue-grey foliage.

The pink is the reason to bother with it. It is cleaner and less muddy than the smoky pink of 'Mystery Rose', which makes it easier to place in a pastel border, and the grey-green foliage is a decent thing in its own right before and after flowering.

It is a hardy perennial down to about minus fifteen, but a short-lived one. Three or four vigorous years and then it thins out and goes. It self-seeds reliably, which is how it keeps itself going, so leave some seed heads if you want it to stay. It wants sun and sharp drainage and will sulk in anything heavy or wet. The foliage is genuinely bristly and not pleasant to handle bare-armed. This is a collector's plant rather than a workhorse, and worth growing on that basis.