Borage, also known as starflower or bee bush, is an annual herb recognized for its culinary and medicinal uses. Its distinctive appearance includes coarse, bristly leaves and stems, which contrast with its beautiful, edible flowers. The herb is valued for its leaves, which offer a mild cucumber flavor, and its seeds, which produce borage oil. This article clarifies the typical timing of its blooming cycle and how that flowering period can be extended.
Typical Borage Bloom Season
Borage (Borago officinalis) begins its flowering cycle in the late spring or early summer, with blooms appearing from June onward in temperate climates. Once the plant reaches maturity, which takes about eight weeks from sowing, it produces its signature blossoms. The flowers are instantly recognizable as five-pointed stars, most often displaying a vibrant, true blue color.
A unique feature of the borage flower is the arrangement of its petals and stamens, which form a small, dark cone at the center. While most are blue, the buds and younger flowers can sometimes appear with a pinkish or purplish hue before maturing. This initial flowering wave can continue consistently through the summer and often persists until the first hard frost of the autumn season.
Factors That Affect Bloom Time
The timing of when borage begins to bloom is influenced by local environmental conditions and planting methods. Borage is a sun-loving plant that performs best when it receives at least six hours of direct sunlight each day; insufficient light can delay flowering and result in fewer blossoms. Although the plant tolerates poor soil, it prefers well-drained conditions to thrive.
Temperature plays a determining role, as borage favors moderate warmth, ideally between 60–75°F for optimal growth and flowering. Extreme heat or unseasonal cold snaps can stress the plant, causing a temporary halt or delay in the production of new flowers. Borage develops a deep taproot and does not transplant well, meaning seeds sown directly into the garden will establish faster and bloom earlier than stressed transplants.
Maintaining and Prolonging the Flowering Period
While borage is an annual, completing its life cycle within a single season, its flowering period is naturally lengthy and can be prolonged. The most effective technique to encourage continuous blooming is deadheading, which involves removing the spent or faded flowers. By removing these older blooms, the plant is prevented from putting energy into seed production and instead redirects that energy toward creating new flowers.
If the plant begins to look tired or sparse in midsummer, a more aggressive pruning strategy can be adopted by cutting the entire plant back by about half its height. This encourages a flush of new, tender foliage and a subsequent wave of reblooming, extending the visual display.
Borage is characterized by its prolific self-seeding capability, dropping numerous black seeds onto the soil as the flowers fade. Allowing some flowers to complete their natural cycle and drop seed ensures that new, successive generations of borage seedlings will emerge throughout the summer and early fall. This staggered germination creates a near-continuous presence of flowering plants in the garden, making the display last until the season-ending frost. Gardeners can also intentionally stagger their planting by sowing small batches of seeds every few weeks during the spring to ensure a rotation of young, vigorous, flowering plants.