Borage for Fortitude, Calm, and Floral Ice Cubes, too!

Borage grows best for me in the winter months here in Southern California. I have had success with growing it in the summer, but it seems to look the best in winter, pest free with beautiful leaves.

This morning while walking around the herb garden I thought about a time that a friend of mine made Borage flower ice cubes for my birthday party.  They were so pretty and such a special surprise in lemonade she served.  Today I picked some of the blossoms and made these ice cubes. 

 

I picked the flowers and removed the stems from the flowers.  You need to pull this out very gently so as not to damage the flowers.  Let them sit in cool water just to make sure there are no little bugs.

Stems removed

Clean flowers placed in the ice cube tray.  Add bottled water only half -way up and freeze just until set, then fill the remainder of the way up to the top of the cubes but not over the edge of the container.  Make sure to use bottled water so you cubes will turn out clear.

Frozen cubes; some of the flowers are not visible here, but as they melt in your drink the cubes will be clear.

I used them in a Hibiscus Flower ice tea, today.

 The ice cubes look so pretty in my cut glass bowl with the sun shining through them.

Borage is native to the Mediterranean, where it is planted in gardens to attract honeybees.  I use organic seeds from Botanical Interests and direct seed in the herb garden.  It generally self-seeds each year, coming up in different areas of the garden.  The plants can grow up to two feet high and spread to three feet across, so give it plenty of room to spread.  The flowers can be pink and blue to purple on the same plant.  In colder areas, plant in the spring after all danger of frost.  Give it at least six hours of sun a day, and plant in general garden soil.