Borage

Borage flowers are so photogenic. Their five pointed petals are much loved in heraldic design, and they are also said to signify courage.

Borage Flower

The only problem is that the plants are a bit straggley and unkempt. They also self seed aggressively.  The flowers tend to point down to the ground and there are precious few recipes that call for borage. (Pimms No 1 is reputed to include borage in it's secret botanic blend). I have read of them being used as a supplement to ravioli filling, but the mature leaf is a fearsome tough thing so either young leaves or finely chopped ones would be required.

Borage plant

Archeitecturally it is a treat. Here are the hairy flower heads before the flowers emerge.

Flower head clusters

The other wonderfull thing about borage plants is that they are bee magnets. I always leave a couple of them to flower each year.

On the subject of weeds with few uses, here's an update on the spike from the Great Mullein plant:

Mullein - still reaching for the sky

And here is a mystery solved.  I allowed some nastutiums to grow alongside the brassicas in my nusery bed.  The other day it looked as if the dreaded cabbage white had devasatated them overnight!  On inspection there weren't any caterpillars in in sight.

Nasturtium carnage!

Then I remembered that in addition to torrential rain we had also had a hailstorm the other day.  I even took photos to prove we had hail in mid July:

The culprits - hailstones

Here's another borage snap - for courage.