The Great Borage Showdown

I am resurrecting this in honour of the OP.

Anyone here interested in gardening?

I have one single Borage this year which I purchased ready made from a shop.

It is sitting in a pot on my plant bench awaiting summer (which appears to have started today), at least here in the south of England.

#jamie. Have we lost you forever?

Dear Spring_in_your_step, you always appear with such pep.

You are a talented poet although I did not know it.

Thank you for your ditty and I'm glad it wasn't poor.

Mine are still flowering at the moment so I'm loathed to compost them.

Two plants have been harvested and are drying, ready for the fireworks display.

I'm flapping around like a gangly Borage stem in the wind....need to lie down.

L8trs.

That's brilliant

A worthy end to my PC forum reading.

Thank you.

It's Kindle O'Clock.

An ode to borage officinalis

With prickly leaves and stems so hairy
A robust reputation for getting quite lairy
Vowing never to sow you or grow you again
Always coming back not one but ten

Now, a new appreciation for these pollinator plants
That provided us with horticultural "bants"
Food for the bees, the star of the show
Terrific tall triffids as we watched you grow

From a little seed, who would have known
New interests ignited and friendships grown
Star like petals of blue, purple, pink and white
Into my life you brought the light

You took over our world, the borders you spread
Popping up in the vegetable bed
The father of sweat, herb of courage and gladness
Bora, Borak, Boris, Borat, Borat Jnr, Borat Senior, Porridge madness

So, bringing much laughter and joy to our hearts
Now you're returned to these earthly parts
Little borage it's time to sleep
As we place you on the compost heap.

Absolutely fantastic borage contributions! It's great to see Borat, Boris, etc etc have flourished and you have received some enjoyment

I was wondering about the "pyrotechnics" - I might select a few at different stages and see if there's any difference. NB I'm not holding out much hope....I'm not expecting NYE Sydney (?) style it'll probably more of a damp squib. (Autocorrect changed squib to squid  - lolz).

Yes Jamie 41 we have missed your presence here! Hope you haven't got suffocated amongst a sea of borage triffids.

My favourite one!

Well - thank you.  This sort of nonsense is my reality, both in this place and IRL.  I'm still most fascinated by the seeds to be honest.  The flowers are pretty (crap idea in an ice cube/drink.....it constantly feels like a fly/fairy has drowned in your drink!) but most importantly, our insects do seem to like them muchly.

Number said:

Hereafter are my latest entries into my Borage Scrapbook folder.

I like the way you have transferred this thread into the physical realm.

I'll have mine with a G and T please

Lovely photos.

Thank you for sharing.

Bor-ice Production Process (very technical stuff indeed!)

The little white flowered one

Both pink and blue on the one plant

A typical Blue

One of the really pretty flowers

Hello Boragers.

Although I have not reported on developments, I can now do so - with some degree of satisfaction.

JAMIE 41 - If you are out there.....I hope you are well and happy and enjoying your Tibetan bowls.....if you see this, come and say hi?

Borage is cool.  I had some pink, some blue and some white flowers.  A couple of the plants held 3 colours on the same stem with pink, blue and pink+blue.  The white ones all came on just one of the plants.

I did the ice cube thing = summer was officially ON.

I intend to harvest and dry our two scientific characters who were selected for immolation.

The flowers have been very pretty (all now over) and the bees and butterflies were definitely interested in them.

Hereafter are my latest entries into my Borage Scrapbook folder.

Fun fact:

Borage translates from Celtic "borrach" to mean "courage". John Gerard's book, Herbal 1597 states "ego borage gaudia semper ago"

"I, borage bring always courage"

and en Français, "bourrache" means "rough" or "hairy" which may describe the leaves.

The blue flowers are said to have inspired the painting of the robes of the Madonna.

- Jekka McVicar's Complete Herb Book 1997

That's lovely. Sounds like your garden is a lovely place for insects.

We've had one or two more but the depletion from previous years is extreme, especially in bees and butterflies but also fewer other insects, including ladybirds.

We actually have more bee and butterfly friendly plants this year, including 180 pots! (a lot of watering).

We have water for the bees (shallow), birds, foxes and hedgehogs

I was watering the garden the other day and a bee landed on a leaf and drank the water.

Nice to see

I have now noticed a few more bees now the weather is warmer, but the flowers are not as full as I have seen previously.

I was watching Springwatch this evening and they mentioned that people are noticing there are less insects. They suggested that there are likely two main reasons. One is industrial farming removing hedgerows and using pesticides. The other is the droughts we have had in recent years. I have a shallow bird bath and have noticed previously insects drinking from there. This has made me realize how important providing water in drought periods is for insects as well as birds.