Borage is an easy-going annual that’s as useful as it is beautiful. The star-shaped blue flowers are a magnet for bees and other pollinators, and they’re edible too – lovely scattered over salads, desserts or frozen into ice cubes for summer drinks. The young leaves have a cool, cucumber-like flavour and can be chopped into salads or stirred through homemade mayonnaise.
🌱 Seasonal Growing Guide
SPRING:
Sow singly in pots in a cold frame or greenhouse. Transplant to their final position as soon as they are hardened off and all frost danger is over.
SUMMER:
Sow more seeds! They are quick growing and mature in 5-6 weeks.
AUTUMN:
Dig them up! Do not compost the flower heads or let them run to seed – unless you want a borage forest!!!
🍴 Edible
young summer leaves can be chopped into salads or add to yogurt dip or mayonnaise. Scatter flowers on salads or puds: or freeze in ice cubes for summer drinks.
🐞 Wildlife friendly
Much loved by short-tongued honeybees (Apis mellifera), who flock to the star-shaped blue flowers for easy-access nectar.
Jersey Tiger Moths (Euplagia quadripunctaria) are known to visit, especially in warmer parts of the UK.
Also attracts red mason bees (Osmia bicornis) and hoverflies, which help with both pollination and pest control.
Flowers replenish nectar quickly, so pollinators return again and again throughout the day.
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