FREE: Beautiful, blue borage

The listing, Beautiful, blue borage has ended.

Borage (aka starflower or bee plant) is a lovely annual flowering herb with soft fuzzy grey-green leaves and clusters of beautiful star shaped periwinkle-blue flowers. It makes a great naturalizing border plant, and the drooping flowers show up well in hanging pots. It prefers good garden soil and full sun, but it will grow happily in less-than-optimum conditions.
This ancient garden herb is often grown as a companion plant amongst vegetables, as it is considered a good companion plant for tomatoes, squash and strawberries. It is said to strengthen the pest and disease resistance of plants growing around it, deter tomato hornworms and improve the flavor of tomatoes growing nearby.
Bees love borage flowers and are attracted to gardens where it blooms..
The flowers are edible -- they are often used as a garnish for salads or floated in lemonade or frozen - little blue stars!) in ice cubes to add a bright touch to a punch-bowl. Our grandmothers often candied the flowers, or used them for tasty fritters. The leaves, too, are edible -- they smell and taste of cool cucumber and are a welcome addition to salads and dips. Young leaves are eaten fresh in salads and sandwiches. Older leaves and/or peeled and chopped stems can be cooked as a vegetable like spinach or added to soups for their cucumber flavor. There are many uses listed for borage in herbal medicine lore -- lots of information on that on the internet!
This auction is for 15 seeds -- this is probably all you will ever need, since -- though it dies in winter -- it usually re-seeds itself enthusiastically!