Borage - A Perfect Flowering Herb

    Borage is a sturdy culinary herb with a fresh, cucumber scent and the most intense blue flowers that are star-shaped and hand in clusters. The leaves are covered with stiff white hairs, and appear almost woolly. A self-sowing annual, these lovely plants can get to three feet. The abundant blue flowers attract bees and produce plenty of seeds for subsequent sowing. It self-seeds like crazy, so you will have to work hard to keep your borage 'in line'! In a mild winter, it can self seed itself to grow all year as long as it's given enough space. Borage will grow well in a sunny or shady spot, and in most types of soil. These large plants will bear hundreds of small, edible flowers that have a mild cucumber flavor and are a wonderful addition to salads and garnishes; it can be used like spinach as a vegetable or added to spinach and cabbage. The fresh leaves can be added to a summer drink, and punches. The fresh blue flowers can be added to salads, candied and used as cake decorations or dried and put in a potpourri. Borage is a favorite flowering herb plant, and Bees love the bright flowers and rely on this plant as a nectar source, literally covering the plants some days.