Borage Buzzes With Bees
My beautiful blue borage begins to bloom in February.
I'm thrilled and the bees are too.
The Sonoma County CA Mediterranean climate where I live has cool, rainy winters and long hot, dry summers.
If your climate is different or harsher, your borage will simply bloom a bit later; that doesn't detract from its benefits.
Though many folks do not appreciate borage, I definitely do.
For starters, it's blue, and I cannot get enough of the blues! Secondly, it's one of the earliest plants to begin blooming, after rosemary.
And though there's not much out there yet to be pollinated, on a warm and sunny afternoon, the bees are diligently working over both the borage and the rosemary.
We need the borage, because we need the bees (have you been reading about the widespread hive die-off?).
Borage officinalis (relating to medicine) originally hales from the Mediterranean area.
Centuries ago the seeds of many non-native herbs, grasses, flowers, grains were brought here by immigrants to grow, or inadvertently in the feed for their cattle or embedded in the coats of the animals.
Whichever way borage arrived, it's undoubtedly here to stay.
For me, everything about Borage is positive: its blueness, its attractiveness to bees, its size (1-3'), and its free-seeding quality.
When it sneaks in and around my garden, filling bare spots between other flowers, I'm content.
I never know where it's going to appear next.
But when I want it to be where it's not, I take the whole stem with spent, gone-to-seed flowers and lay it down in that spot.
Voila, that's where they'll be next! But I've heard folks say, "It seeds all over the place.
" Well, yes, it can.
Don't want it there? Pull it out-it's easy.
I also appreciate its cultural requirements: sun or shade, practically no water, poor soil, all climate zones.
What's not to like? Others have complained about the difficulty of handling its prickly hairiness.
Wear gloves and long sleeves! And finally, I love those tiny star-shaped flowers because they are edible.
I hold the stem, and with a simple pinch in the middle of the blue corolla, out it pops, intact.
I use them in salads or on appetizer cheese platters.
Afraid to eat them? Don't.
Use them simply as a garnish on the side.
That electric blue does wonders for a monochromatic side dish.
And wash the blues thoroughly, because you never know where the dog's been.
Enjoy your borage! © 2010 Sandy P.
Baker
I'm thrilled and the bees are too.
The Sonoma County CA Mediterranean climate where I live has cool, rainy winters and long hot, dry summers.
If your climate is different or harsher, your borage will simply bloom a bit later; that doesn't detract from its benefits.
Though many folks do not appreciate borage, I definitely do.
For starters, it's blue, and I cannot get enough of the blues! Secondly, it's one of the earliest plants to begin blooming, after rosemary.
And though there's not much out there yet to be pollinated, on a warm and sunny afternoon, the bees are diligently working over both the borage and the rosemary.
We need the borage, because we need the bees (have you been reading about the widespread hive die-off?).
Borage officinalis (relating to medicine) originally hales from the Mediterranean area.
Centuries ago the seeds of many non-native herbs, grasses, flowers, grains were brought here by immigrants to grow, or inadvertently in the feed for their cattle or embedded in the coats of the animals.
Whichever way borage arrived, it's undoubtedly here to stay.
For me, everything about Borage is positive: its blueness, its attractiveness to bees, its size (1-3'), and its free-seeding quality.
When it sneaks in and around my garden, filling bare spots between other flowers, I'm content.
I never know where it's going to appear next.
But when I want it to be where it's not, I take the whole stem with spent, gone-to-seed flowers and lay it down in that spot.
Voila, that's where they'll be next! But I've heard folks say, "It seeds all over the place.
" Well, yes, it can.
Don't want it there? Pull it out-it's easy.
I also appreciate its cultural requirements: sun or shade, practically no water, poor soil, all climate zones.
What's not to like? Others have complained about the difficulty of handling its prickly hairiness.
Wear gloves and long sleeves! And finally, I love those tiny star-shaped flowers because they are edible.
I hold the stem, and with a simple pinch in the middle of the blue corolla, out it pops, intact.
I use them in salads or on appetizer cheese platters.
Afraid to eat them? Don't.
Use them simply as a garnish on the side.
That electric blue does wonders for a monochromatic side dish.
And wash the blues thoroughly, because you never know where the dog's been.
Enjoy your borage! © 2010 Sandy P.
Baker
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