Borage 20 July 2016 at 2:03PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 12 replies 2.5K views

Gers

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?

Gers

Nobody? All the knowledgeable folk must be away I suspect.

REEN

Might the poorly one have aphids? Borage is pretty tough usually.

jrtfan

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

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

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

My differing borages are still different!

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




and here's the puny one:-

Davesnave

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

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

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

Gers

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.