How to Grow Borage
Borage At a Glance
Difficulty
Easy
Category
Herb
Sun Exposure
Full Sun, Partial Sun
Frost Tolerance
Frost Tender
Cold Hardiness
Survives to -7°C
Plant Family
Boraginaceae
Growing Season
Warm Season
Plant Lifecycle
Annual
How to Start It
★ Recommended for beginners
Borage shrugs off a light frost, so sow it from about 2 weeks before your last spring frost. Push 2 to 3 seeds 1 cm deep every 30 cm and cover them. They sprout in 5 to 10 days: keep the strongest seedling at each spot and pull the others.
Borage grows one long main root and does not like being moved, so sow it where you want it to stay. After one sowing it drops its own seeds and pops up every spring, so you rarely need to sow it again. Bees love its blue star flowers more than almost anything else in the garden.
When To Start
First chance to plant
14 Days Before Last Frost
Last chance to plant
30 Days Before First Frost
When should you plant Borage?
Your planting dates depend on your local climate. Sign up and add your location to unlock personalized dates.
Your Borage Planting Window
Start planting
May 15, 2026
Last chance
Sep 10, 2026
Your Borage Calendar
Set your location to turn these into exact dates and reminders.
Sow borage outdoors now, then let it seed itself each year
2 weeks before your last frost· every year
Pick borage flowers and young leaves, leave some for the bees
55 days after your last frost· every year· optional
Did you water your borage seedlings today? Keep the top of the soil damp until they are up and growing.
About 1 days after you plant it
Your borage is growing fast! Give it plenty of room, since it gets big and spreads out.
About 30 days after you plant it
Blue flowers are close on your borage. Pick them as they open, and the bees will love the rest.
About 50 days after you plant it
Picking time may be here: check your borage.
About 60 days after you plant it
The Journey Ahead
Borage's Lifecycle
Seedling
Mature Plant
Seed Production
Step 1
Prepare Your Space
1 cm
Seeding Depth
30 cm
Plant Spacing
45 cm
Row Spacing
1
Plants / Sq Ft
Vertical Growing
Yes: Trellis.
Method: Trellis.
Succession Planting
Yes.
Good Companions
Bad Companions
Step 2
Planting & Sprouting
Expect sprouts in 5–10 days
Growing Tips
- 1Give borage full sun, at least 6 hours a day, though it copes with a little shade.
- 2It grows in almost any soil, so a little compost at planting is all it needs.
- 3Water seedlings until they are growing well, then only in long dry spells, since borage handles dry soil.
- 4Skip extra feeding, because rich soil gives big floppy plants with fewer flowers.
- 5Plants get tall and heavy, so push a few sticks around them to stop them flopping in wind.
- 6Spray aphids off with water, and late in summer pull out tired plants with a white dust on the leaves (powdery mildew), since new seedlings will already be coming up.
Seedling Phase
Step 3
Growth & Maturity
~60
Days to Maturity
60 cm
Mature Height
45 cm
Mature Width
Pests to Watch For
Diseases to Watch For
Mature Plant
Step 4
Harvesting
Harvest Window
30 days
When to Pick
Harvest young leaves or flowers
How to Harvest
- 1Pick the blue flowers once they are fully open, in the morning after the dew dries.
- 2Hold the hairy back of the flower and gently pull the blue star free.
- 3Pick young leaves while they are small and soft, before they grow prickly hairs.
- 4The flowers taste like cucumber, so toss them in salads, float them on drinks or freeze them in ice cubes.
- 5Eat the leaves only now and then and in small amounts, chopped into salads or cooked like spinach.
- 6Leave plenty of flowers on the plant for the bees and for next year's seedlings.
Step 5
Saving Seeds
How to Save Seeds
Borage seed comes true, and there is only one common kind, so you do not need to worry about crossing. The seeds ripen a few at a time and drop as soon as they turn black, so look at the plants every few days once the flowers start to fade. Pick the black seeds from the fuzzy flower backs by hand, or lay a sheet under the plant and shake it gently. Dry them on a plate for a week, then store them labelled in a cool, dark, dry place, where they keep about 3 years.
Seed Production
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