If you are thinking about adding a new bee-friendly plant to your garden, may I recommend Borage? It’s easy to grow, flowers for a long time, and the bees absolutely love it! Also (although I have not tried it yet) you can add the leaves to a salad! Can anyone recommend it in salad? What does it taste like?
This is my entry to Cee’s Flower of the Day Challenge.
Denzil Nature 
I love borage in the garden, though it doesn’t ‘alf take over, given the chance. I like to eat the leaves too – it’s got a fresh, cucumber-ish sort of taste.
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Right, well then if it gets your recommendation, I will try it this summer!
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Once sown youll never get rid of it. So beware. The leaves are a bit prickly for me but the flowers are nice in a salad and freeze in ice cubes to make a pretty garnish in G&T. And yes, cucumber taste.
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Strange how some flowers disappear without a trace, while others remain an ever-present for years.
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I sowed some borage in 2016 and still have it coming up now. It can grow quite tall and has deep tap roots. Tends to flop in my exposed garden.
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This is simply stunning 😀
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Thanks Cee.
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Characteristics and uses
Traditionally, borage was cultivated for culinary and medicinal uses, although today, commercial cultivation is mainly as an oilseed.
Borage is used as either a fresh vegetable or a dried herb. As a fresh vegetable, borage, with a cucumber-like taste, is often used in salads or as a garnish.
The flower has a sweet, honey-like taste and is often used to decorate desserts and cocktails, most commonly, frozen in ice cubes.
Food
Vegetable use of borage is common in Germany, in the Spanish regions of Aragón and Navarre, on the Greek island of Crete, and in the northern Italian region of Liguria.
Although often used in soups, one of the better known German borage recipes is the Frankfurt speciality grüne Soße (“green sauce”).
In Liguria, Italy, borage (in Italian, borragine) is commonly used as a filling of the traditional pasta ravioli and pansoti.
It is used to flavour pickled gherkins in Poland and Russia.
The flowers produce copious nectar which is used by honeybees to make a light and delicate honey.
Beverage
Borage is traditionally used as a garnish in the Pimms Cup cocktail,[5] but is nowadays often replaced by a long sliver of cucumber peel or by mint. It is also one of the key botanicals in Gilpin’s Westmorland Extra Dry Gin.
In Persian cuisine, borage tea (using the dried purple flowers) is called گل گاوزبان : gol gâvzabân, “cow’s-tongue-flower”.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borage
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Brilliant color. Haven’t tried it, but have friends that like it. Sure be pretty on a salad.
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Looks like we’ll both be trying something new this summer Donna!
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Sounds good to me.
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Lovely. 😊
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Borage is a wonderful companion plant and the flowers are beautiful. If you know a cake decorator they will love crystallising those flowers.
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That’s something to bear in mind Suzanne, should I ever meet (or need) a cake decorator.
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That’s a wonderful photo of a borage flower, especially as they tend to face downward.
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Thankfully no photo exists of me lieing down on the ground and pointing my camera upwards Audrey!
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Perhaps I should look at putting some in a pot. After reading Jude’s comment I don’t want it to take over. But it is pretty.
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I think it’s the seeds that get blown all over the place, so I am not sure a pot would help.
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That could be true. I’ll just enjoy yours then. 🙂
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