Record — updated 2026-07

Borage Companion Plants

Entry No. 042

Borago officinalis · borage family family · rotation group: other

The best companion plants for borage are Strawberry, Squash, Tomato, Bean, and Cucumber. Of the 5 pairings recorded here, 1 is supported by published research and 4 are traditional practice with no controlled evidence behind them.

Research-backed tested in controlled research Traditional long practice, untested Not supported tested and not supported

What to plant with borage

Companion plants for borage — 1 research-backed, 4 traditional
Plant	Claimed benefit	Evidence	What the evidence actually shows
Strawberry	Borage planted near strawberries recruits wild pollinators and improves fruit set.	Research-backed	The strongest borage claim. In a two-season University of Minnesota trial, strawberry yield and pollinator abundance both declined with distance from a borage strip, with significantly lower average berry weight in the farthest plot; hoverflies and native bees were the main visitors. Source: Berries, bees, and borage, University of Minnesota Fruit Research
Bean	Borage is said to improve growth of nearby beans.	Traditional	Common chart entry with no supporting trial. Source: Borage, Illinois Extension Herbs
Cucumber	Borage draws bees that improve cucumber fruit set.	Traditional	Mechanistically plausible for a bee-pollinated crop, but untested for cucumber specifically. Source: Borage, UC Marin Master Gardeners, UC ANR
Squash	Borage improves pollination of squash and other insect-pollinated cucurbits.	Traditional	Extrapolated from the verified strawberry result; borage's pollinator draw is real but no cucurbit-specific trial was found. Source: Berries, bees, and borage, University of Minnesota Fruit Research
Tomato	Borage is the classic tomato companion, said to boost vigour and yield.	Traditional	Tomatoes are largely self-pollinating, so the pollinator benefit that works for strawberries does not transfer; no controlled evidence for a tomato benefit. Source: Borago officinalis, NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox

The honest verdict

Of everything gardeners recommend planting alongside borage, 1 pairing has been tested properly: Strawberry. Those are the ones worth planning your bed around.

The remaining 4 pairings on this page are traditional practice. They circulate on every companion planting chart online, but we could not find controlled evidence testing them. They are not wrong so much as unverified — most cost nothing to try, and interplanting flowers and herbs has its own well-documented benefit of pulling pollinators and predatory insects into the garden.

Every row above links to the publication it came from. See how we grade evidence.

Other recorded effects

Effects that aren't about a neighbouring plant — what borage does for (or to) the garden around it, and the caveats attached to the popular versions of those claims.

Recorded effects and caveats — Borage
Effect	The claim	Evidence	What the evidence actually shows
Pollinators	Borage is an exceptional bee and hoverfly forage plant.	Research-backed	Confirmed in the UMN strawberry work, where borage strips measurably raised pollinator abundance in the surrounding crop. Source: Berries, bees, and borage, University of Minnesota Fruit Research
Tomato Hornworm	Borage repels tomato hornworm.	Not supported	One of the most-repeated garden claims and one of the least supported: no plant is documented to repel tomato hornworm, and borage has never been trialled for it. Handpicking and Bt remain the controls that work. Source: Borago officinalis, NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox
Tomato Flavour Improvement	Borage grown beside tomatoes makes the fruit taste better.	Not supported	Companion-planting flavour claims were tested directly: three years of double-blind taste tests found no consistent preference for tomatoes grown with companions over monoculture tomatoes. Source: Bomford, M.K. (2004), Yield, pest density, and tomato flavor effects of companion planting incorporating tomato, basil, and Brussels sprout, West Virginia University
Small Raised Beds	Borage is a tidy, well-behaved companion.	Traditional	It reaches 2-3 feet with a wide sprawl and self-seeds prolifically, so it crowds small beds and returns indefinitely. Source: Borage, UC Marin Master Gardeners, UC ANR

Growing borage: the numbers

Field data — Borage
Sun	Full sun (6+ hours)
Water	Low once established
Spacing	15 in apart · 24 in between rows · 1 per square foot
Mature size	about 30 in tall
Soil pH	6–7.5
Days to maturity	50–60 days
Frost tolerance	Tender — killed by frost
Containers	Yes — 3 gallon minimum
Common pests	aphids, japanese beetles
Common diseases	powdery mildew

When to plant borage

Zone 6b shown

Start indoors Sow / transplant outdoors Harvest

Direct sow outdoors: Apr 10 – Apr 23 — around your last frost date

Expected harvest: May 30 – Jun 9 — 50–60 days from planting

Those dates are for zone 6b. Get your own dates by ZIP code →

Varieties worth knowing

seeds

Common blue borage — standard bright blue star-shaped flowers
Alba — white-flowered form
Bianca — compact and sturdier; suited to pot culture
Variegata — blue flowers over green-and-white variegated leaves

Variety names link to seeds on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. These are the varieties named in the extension sources for this crop, not a paid placement — where a source recommended a variety for a specific reason, that reason is the note beside it.

Put it in a bed

The garden planner checks every square against this ledger as you place crops — if you drop borage next to something recorded as a bad neighbour, the square turns red and tells you why.

Records for the plants named above:

Strawberry Squash Tomato Bean Cucumber

Same rotation group (other) — don't follow one with another:

Asparagus Celery Okra Rhubarb Sweet corn Sweet Potato

Borage companion planting questions

What should not be planted next to borage?

We have no well-evidenced antagonists on file for borage. The reliable rule is to avoid crowding it with anything in its own family (borage family), which shares its pests and diseases and makes rotation harder.

How far apart should borage be planted?

Space borage about 15 inches apart in the row, with 24 inches between rows. In a square-foot bed that works out to 1 plant per square foot.

Does companion planting with borage actually work?

Partly. 1 of the pairings on this page are backed by published research — Strawberry. The rest are traditional practice: plausible, harmless to try, but untested. Treat the folklore as a starting point rather than a rule, and read what the evidence says about companion planting.

When should I plant borage?

Direct sow outdoors around your last frost date. In zone 6b that means roughly Apr 10 – Apr 23. Get exact dates for your ZIP code →

Sources for this record

Record compiled 2026-07. Spot an error or a study we missed? Tell us and we'll correct the entry.