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Borage

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Gers
Gers Posts: 13,104 Forumite
Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
Recently I bought two borage plants and put them in the same bed although about six feet apart.

One is like the oncoming Triffid, huge stems, huge leaves and multi-flowered bunches (didn't realise that the plant is spiky), the other shot up, gave me one bunch of little flowers and is now stunted and looking just miserable.

Is there anything I can do to perk up the poorly borage?
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  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 13,104 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Nobody? All the knowledgeable folk must be away I suspect.

    :(
  • REEN
    REEN Posts: 547 Forumite
    500 Posts Third Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Might the poorly one have aphids? Borage is pretty tough usually.
  • jrtfan
    jrtfan Posts: 1,135 Forumite
    Seventh Anniversary Combo Breaker
    They have very fleshy stems, don't they? I wonder if something is attacking it too, maybe along the stem or even at the roots. You don't have any pets which might be doing their business on the soil around it, do you, or foxes maybe? I lost a lavendar plant recently because one of my dogs had taken to using it as a message board but I hadn't twigged for a while.
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 13,104 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Reen wrote: »
    Might the poorly one have aphids? Borage is pretty tough usually.

    No, no aphids. It's just odd as that's the one that grew and flowered first and is now just sort of hanging about.

    jrtfan wrote: »
    They have very fleshy stems, don't they? I wonder if something is attacking it too, maybe along the stem or even at the roots. You don't have any pets which might be doing their business on the soil around it, do you, or foxes maybe? I lost a lavendar plant recently because one of my dogs had taken to using it as a message board but I hadn't twigged for a while.


    No, no pets or animals, it's a totally walled / enclosed garden and we don't have pets. Only things coming in are loads of birds and one red squirrel.

    It's a mystery, but thanks for your input.
  • DaftyDuck
    DaftyDuck Posts: 4,609 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    It will be seed-grown. It's quite possible for one to be a runty crossbreed no-hoper, and the other to be in fine fettle. Could be a pest or virus, but I'd just guess genetics.
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 13,104 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    My differing borages are still different!

    Here's the bonkers-going-tonto one:-

    bonkers%20borage.jpg


    and here's the puny one:-

    baby%20borage.jpg
  • Davesnave
    Davesnave Posts: 34,741 Forumite
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    Like Dafty says, it's probably a matter of breeding.

    The two plants may have started life together, but one put down roots and tried hard to make the most of its environment.

    The other one most likely felt entitled to something better, waited to see whether it would be transported to the delights of a garden somewhere in warm, Southern England, and when that didn't happen, it literally gave up.

    It's probably blaming the large one right now, but it's unlikely the geraniums, sedum or astilbes will listen; they're all good doers. ;)

    That geum near the back might sympathise, though. It's about to be overrun by a horde of lysimachia..... :eek:
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 13,104 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Thanks - they were both bought from the same nursery on the same day!

    As for Mrs Bradshaw, she's a new resident in the garden and will, I'm told, disappear for the winter only to reappear in due time. I'm keeping an eye on the yellow things. Already the Virginia Creeper is having a hard time getting established on the wall because of it and the verbena next to it. All the rain we've been having / are having seems to made some plants go wild.

    Is it worth leaving the runt or just pulling it up and putting us both out of our misery?

    As for the bonkers one, its stems are just huge and unwieldy (and very p r i c k ly) do I just leave it to take over? Sitting on our wee chairs is a perilous task just now.
  • Farway
    Farway Posts: 14,599 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Homepage Hero Name Dropper
    Gers wrote: »
    Thanks - they were both bought from the same nursery on the same day!

    Is it worth leaving the runt or just pulling it up and putting us both out of our misery?

    As for the bonkers one, its stems are just huge and unwieldy (and very p r i c k ly) do I just leave it to take over? Sitting on our wee chairs is a perilous task just now.

    Leave them both for the bees, they will both self seed & next year you will have loads of them springing up
    Eight out of ten owners who expressed a preference said their cats preferred other peoples gardens
  • Gers
    Gers Posts: 13,104 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Well - the problem thug is no more! The wild gales broke all the huge 'branches' right through so I've had to amputate them. Such a shame really as the bees were having a bean feast on the flowers.

    Perhaps it'll come back. Meanwhile the runt is beginning to flower again - nature is such a mystery.
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