Growing Borage, also Burrage, Bugloss

Borago officinalis : Boraginaceae / the borage family

Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
S	S	S	S
	T	T	T
	P	P	P

(Best months for growing Borage in Australia - temperate regions)

S = Plant undercover in seed trays
T = Plant out (transplant) seedlings
P = Sow seed

Easy to grow. Sow in garden. Sow seed at a depth approximately three times the diameter of the seed. Best planted at soil temperatures between 10°C and 25°C. (Show °F/in)
Space plants: 20 cm apart
Harvest in 8-10 weeks. Use leaves before flowers appear, otherwise they will be 'hairy'. .
Compatible with (can grow beside): Strawberry, tomatoes, zucchini/squash. Deters pests from many plants.

A tall, attractive plant, often grown in flowerbeds. Bright blue star-shaped edible flowers. Grow in a sunny spot with well drained fertile soil. Borage dies down in the winter, but probably you will not need to buy any more seeds as it self seeds quite vigorously and spreads around the garden. Luckily, it is so attractive that it adds to the general design.

Will grow almost anywhere but prefers well-drained soil. Can be transplanted when young but older plants do not move well.

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Borage

Has a slight cucumber taste which goes well in salads and when cooked with silverbeet or cabbage.
The flowers make a pretty drink decoration when frozen in an iceblock.

Your comments and tips

01 Oct 24, (Australia - sub-tropical climate): How do I actually harvest borage? Is it in the stems or leaves? I understand flowers but never knew you coukd actually eat it!
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04 Oct 24, Chris (Australia - temperate climate): Some people eat the young leaves. I think they're reasonably safe in small quantities. I grow it for the flowers and let chickens enjoy the leaves.
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19 Oct 21, Phillip (Australia - temperate climate): I live in Perth which has hot dry summers. Borage may not survive direct sunlight and heat through the day. The planting location will be hence and with espaliered citrus….?
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20 Oct 21, (Australia - temperate climate): Plant where they might receive some shade morning or afternoon. When hot water more often.
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31 Jul 20, Rita (Australia - temperate climate): Contrary to the growing season of Borage I'm in Central Victoria and we have had it growing since autumn rains came. We have had several severe frosts this season and it is still going gang busters. I have noticed though that there is tending not to be seeds being produced, most likely from the lack of bees around in the cold. Something to do with climate change maybe?
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03 Aug 20, Anonymous (Australia - sub-tropical climate): This website is only a general guide for planting. DO read the statement at the bottom of the page, local conditions come into play. I (and I am not part of Gardenate) believe most of the planting guidance here is from soil temperatures required to germinate seeds. People say don't plant corn until it is warmer weather, probably Sept/Oct. I had corn self germinate in my garden two weeks ago, middle of winter. Tomatoes another warm weather crop has been germinating all winter. I had borage last autumn/winter, was going no where until the winter solstice then it took off, plants 1.5m wide and 1m high. The year before I has 1 bee come each morning, with the borage I had 80-100. Disease has wiped out a big % of the worlds bees. Plant some flowers etc to encourage them to come to your garden and increase their numbers. Miss used words, climate change, where I live, is it changing from sub-tropical to tropical, I don't think so.
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02 Feb 20, Isabel (Australia - temperate climate): Hi, I come from Spain, in the north basque area, though I live in Perth. I love borage! We eat it as a vegetable, we discard the leaves, clean the stems a bit and chopped in finger lenght size, we boil with potato. Once cooked we add either raw olive oil, after ridding of some of the boiling liquid, or we fry a bit of garlic and add it to the borage together with the oil. Yum!!
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25 Mar 20, Jamie Graham (Australia - temperate climate): Thanks Isabel. I have borage all around my garden, it is a beautiful plant and the bees love it but I have never quite known what to do with it. Now I do.
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13 Aug 22, Tina Siale (Australia - sub-tropical climate): Hi Jaime, my kids enjoy eating the flowers and we dig the excess plants into the soil as a green manure as borage comes from the same family as comfrey.
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22 Mar 20, Nagore (Australia - temperate climate): Hola Isabel, me llamo Nagore y me gustaría hacer una huerta así que vine a esta web en busca de información pero por lo visto solo tiene unas zonas climáticas especificas y yo vivo en Navarra en un pueblo cerca de Iruña,como por ahora solo estoy recogiendo información me gustaría saber si me podrías decir un poco como empezar o que plantar por estas fechas y así. Gracias Hi Isabel, my name is Nagore and I would like to make a vegetable garden so I came to this website in search of information but apparently it only has specific climatic zones and I live in Navarra in a town near Iruña, as for now I am only collecting information I would like to know if you could tell me a bit how to start or what to plant around this time and so on. Thank you
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Replying to:

I have had wonderful success with Borage this year in melbourne. It survived a cold winter and has had the most amazing blue flowers. In conjunction with mustard i have had excellent bee activity for the last few months as we have entered spring now. As Borage grew quite big in my vege garden, i am hoping to only have one plat growing as a companion. I haven't used it for any eating yet, but i have read it is ok for salads.

- Shane Mcsweeney

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Growing Borage, also Burrage, Bugloss

Borago officinalis : Boraginaceae / the borage family

Culinary hints - cooking and eating Borage

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