A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Herbs Borage....?

Has anyone ever planted and used borage. I was looking for a plant that will attract bees to my greenhouse and borage was what I was told to plant. So I'm planning on planting it right outside my greenhouse in a raised bed.

I also want to know with what foods to use it with.

I believe it's used in a lot of soups.

flower petals: sprinkle on salads. Sugared, use as a cake decoration. Freeze in ice cubes. Float whole flower in punch or summer drinks. Remove bloom from green back and don't use stamens or growth coming from center of bloom.

Use only young tender leaves. Finely chop and add to salads, cream cheese spread, yogurt. Saute like spinach. Leaves have a cucumber taste. For a refreshing summer drink add a few bruised leaves and lemon slices to water, let set a few hours. Remove solids, add ice and a drop of vanilla. This drink can be heated and sipped to ease a sore throat. Use leaves medicinally as a poultice for bruises and inflamed areas. Limit use of leaves as a food to occasional.

Pick flowers and leaves just before use or they wilt.

Fun Fact: When the leaf is burned it will spark and give off a slight firecracker like sound.

I grow Borage,
and I think once you grow it you never get rid of it..
*it's a good plant though, I am just a sucker for it's
babies*

I'll post a picture of how big they can get...


And here's pictures of the babies in between the
Johnny~Jump~Up's...
**They are volunteers in my garden every spring**


I don't use/or eat them...

I grow them for the bright blue beautiful flowers,
and the benefical insects..
*although Japanese Beetles are attracked to mine,
but better there than on some of my other ornamentals.*

Hey thanks all, that's what I wanted to know. I'll be planting mine in a raised bed just outside my greenhouse, so I'm hoping to have some control over how much grows. I really want more bees this year so we'll see if it'll work.

Mmmm..borage in salads, love it.

BF just told me he heard theres a decline in bees this year.
Bee balm is great for attracting bees too.

Is bee balm the same thing as lemon balm?

Bee Balm and lemon balm are two different plants. Both are in the mint family. Bee balm is a favorite of hummers and butterflies. Lemon balm is more a culinary herb but its flowers do attract bees.

Thank you, Herbalyn.
I have lemom balm but have never seen bee balm.

Hey, my BF's brother in law works in bees on the west coast, into ND, MT, ID, WA and OR. They were on the 10 o'clock news the other night talking about how they think cell phone waves distract the honeybees from finding their nest... and there might be mites bothering them too. They have lost 1/3 of their hive this year.

About bee balm, or monarda it's other name, another name is lemon mint. I ordered some from artisticgardens.com, and I think richters.com and horizonherbs.com has some too... I got some bee balm in a trade last year... it comes in purple, hot pink, and I think yellow too... not sure. I wanted to try some to add color to my herb garden, seems like there will be a lot of blue in it... I'm using a lot of different herbs instead of flowers because a lot of them grow in partial shade and my alkaline soil.

Lorena

HEY FROM CHICAGO,

BY THE BY DID YOU KNOW THEY ARE HYPOTHESIZING THAT CELL PHONES ARE INTERFERING WITH THE BEES NAVIGATIONAL SYSTEM. ALSO INTERESTING TO NOTE THAT EINSTEIN SAID THAT IF WE LOOSE THE BEES WE'RE IN TROUBLE.

Hello fellow Illinoian.
I heard that too about the bees--it is kinda scary--What ever will we do??

lemon balm is also good in salads..pairs nicely with Thai basil.

--I am wanting to add something to my garden to draw the bees---& in view of what weezie said about Japanse Beetles, I think I may add Bee Balm & not Borage---

I would like some opinions on the Borage vs Bee Balm issue.

I am going to add one or the other to my herb garden, and as this will not be for food purposes, I am really open to ideas. I had gone with the notion that whichever plant I found first would be the one I planted--well so far I have not found either in plant form. Today I found seeds of them both---so now I really do not know which is best---
and Like I said, what does anybody think???

I've planted Bee Balm numerous times, it won't over winter here in my zone 4.