You would be forgiven if you mistook the beautifully blue, star-shaped flowers and rough, hairy stems and leaves of Borago officinalis for a perennial garden stalwart. Borage is, however, a robust annual that vigorously self-sows. The full-sun Mediterranean native grows in USDA hardiness zones 2-11, making it a plant available to most any gardener.
Borage’s cucumber-flavored flowers and leaves place it firmly in the kitchen garden. Pollinators have rights to borage for its nectar-rich flowers, too. In the vegetable garden borage plays a supporting role, acting the part of the much-visited pollinator plant, thus luring bees and butterflies toward awaiting tomato, pepper and cucumber flowers.
