Feverfew normally acts as a perennial here.
Borage is an annual that self-seeds heavily - if you think they didn't have enough time to set seed last year for whatever reason, maybe you'll have to plant them again, but after that, you'll be weeding them out. Not to say I don't like the plant - I do.

Gee, I'm glad someone brought up feverfew because I was wondering the same thing. I just planted it last year for the first time and was wondering if it comes back as a perennial.

Also, when I bought mine, the plant tags said Matricaria, that's all. When I have looked up this plant, I have found Matricaria listed as both chamomile and feverfew. Can anyone explain which is which? I really am not sure what I have. Duh!

Sharon, you sent me some seed for double feverfew. That is a different name than Matricaria. Now, I'm really confused. Easiest, I guess, explained with a picture.

Shauna

I also like to plant some borage, more so for the honey bees, they love them to death!

How do you process [eat] these two herbs?

Here is a pic I took near me....bee haven.....[Borage]
Konrad
{{gwi:426988}}

Wow, that's a lot of borage! With the heavy self-sowing, I have one small area that looks a little like that, LOL! Is that a crop grown just for honey (i.e. for the bees, I mean)?
Borage flowers are edible and look rather nice in a salad. The leaves are also edible, and taste like mild cucumber... but chop them up 'cause they're pretty dang bristly (which is not a pleasant "mouthfeel", if you ask me!)
Haven't used fewerfew for anything but ornamentally.

Shauna,
"Feverfew" and "chamomile" are common names that are, unfortunately (but not surprisingly), might be applied to a couple of different genera. "Chamomile" is used for both Anthemis and Matricaria. So far as I know, feverfew is usually Tanacetum (see below) but I wouldn't rule out other "interpretations". But...if you use the scientific name to refer to your plant, it will be clear exactly which one you mean.
The plant in your photo is Tanacetum parthenium (used to be called Chrysanthemum parthenium), a double-flowered variety.
Lori

That's exactly what I thought, Lori. So, as Tanacetum parthenium, this plant would be commonly called double feverfew? Then this the same plant as the seeds that you sent me, Sharon? Darn. I thought it was different than what I already had because I thought I had a matricaria. : (

BTW, the plant label on these was a prof. printed label with a picture of the above plant, not a hand lettered label. I think that is what really was confusing me.

Shauna

Yes, so far as I know, people would call the plant in the picture "double feverfew" (Tanacetum parthenium 'plenum'; 'plenum' just means double-flowered).
Well, to add more complication to the story, apparently it was also once known as Matricaria parthenium! So, maybe that's why the tag referred to it as chamomile (i.e. relying on outdated taxonomy)???

I have Borage that self-seeds far and wide, it can turn out to be weedy but easy to pull or hoe out. If your plant froze before it could develop mature seed, then no you'll most likely have to re-sow. The flowers are nice to float in adult drinks, but be careful that a bee doesn't fly up your nose ;)

Marcia, canÂt remember which one I gave you, was the seed from Veseys?

Sharon

Oops, I mean Shauna! LOL

Borage re-seeded here but not to bad....I think I evenually pulled them all out before they reseeded, don't recall seeing any last year.

Sierra

Sharon,
The seeds are in a coin envelope with your writing, I think, on it.

Shauna

Thank you Lory!
>>Is that a crop grown just for honey (i.e. for the bees, I mean)?

I don't think so.... was saying to myself, I should go to the farmer and ask!...Perhaps I could get some seed ?
I'm telling you, when standing in that field, it was just "humming"

"Feverfew" and "chamomile"
I'm a bit confused....the one you buy for tea, ...I often do, is chamomile, are they hardy for zone 3?
Konrad

Hi, Konrad,
If you look at the attached site (Richter's Herbs), you will see a number of "chamomiles" that are, apparently, used herbally.

'German chamomile' (Matricaria recutita or formerly, Matricaria chamomilla, and also Chamomilla recutita) is a pineapple-scented annual that occurs in Alberta; an introduced weed. (Not to be confused, however, with pineapple weed, Matricaria matricarioides, with which you are probably familiar). So, as an annual, hardiness is not an issue, and clearly it sustains itself "naturally" by self-sowing.

"Roman chamomile" is Anthemis nobilis. A perennial, but I have no experience with it and can't tell you if it's hardy.

"Dyer's Chamomile" is Anthemis tinctoria 'Kelwayi', or Kelway's Daisy - which is definitely a hardy perennial here. I planted two of these a couple of years ago in fall, and was amazed by them all last summer - huge and covered in blossoms all through the season.

There's also English and Double Chamomile (Chamaemelum nobile) - I have no experience with this either.

But thinking back....the weed in our lawn at home (zone 2) was likely some species of white-flowered perennial chamomile, so...it wouldn't surprise me at all if these other species were hardy here.

Maybe someone else can answer definitively?

Whew, lots of changes in these plant names over time!
Lori

Here is a link that might be useful: Richter's Herbs: Chamomile

Thank you Lori!

Looking at my camomile tea box, [spelled without the h] for some reason?? from Nutratea, it only says, product of Slovenia.
I'm pretty sure it's the "good stuff" [Matricaria chamomilla] otherwise we would be picking weeds on roadsides. LOL
I'm willing to do so and try it out but wouldn't know what is what?.....the ones on roadsides, where the county sprays with weedkiller is what.... pineapple weed?...where does Chamomilla recutita grow?
Konrad

My copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book lists Chamaemelum nobile and Anthemis nobilis as the same thing: Roman chamomile.

I have both the German and Roman chamomile, and I have grown them both for 2 years.

The 'German chamomile' (Matricaria recutita, etc...) is an annual that reseeded itself in my garden so that I still had it growing last year without having to buy a new plant. Hopefully, this will continue -- it makes a nice, mild, sweet-tasting tea.

The "Roman chamomile" (which I've thought is Chamaemelum nobile) is a perennial that is hardy in my garden. The tea is supposed to be more medicinal-tasting (I haven't tried it yet), but the foliage has a nice apple scent when you brush against it. The Roman chamomile is also shorter than the annual German kind.

Sharon

Thank you Sharon!
Some good ideas here!
How do you find the annual that reseed?.. is the season long enough to have a descent harvest?

Konrad

Konrad, do you where did you take that picture of the Borage field? Was it near Vegreville? My boyfriend's uncle has a huge of it! I don't know the landscape around his farm to recognize it from the picture, but it was a sea of purple over the summer.

I highly recommend you check out Lois Hole's Herbs & Edible Flowers. It's full of growing tips and recipes, including Borage! The book is pretty easy to find at all the bookstores and Hole's donated their every one of their publications to every public library in Alberta.

Konard, William Dam Seed sells Borago officinalis seed in packets or up to 450g. It all depends on the season, if we have a early frost, most likely the plant will go to mush before it can set mature seed, most times it will self-seed readily.

Watch out, the hairs on Borage give me a rash.

Sharon

Looks like Konrad has access to all the borage seed he could possibly want, LOL!

Actually, I meant on the chamomile seeds?

Yeah..you got that right Lory! ..LOL

>>Watch out, the hairs on Borage give me a rash.

Thank you for this reminder!

Steph
The field of borage was only about 2 miles from Beaumont, have yet to go there and ask.
Konrad

I think it's fun that I'm seeing Slovenian products popping up in a variety of places. ( I am 3/4 Slovenian.) My Slovenian immigrant Grandmother lived in the Minnesota borderland with Canada. She said chamomile grew "wild" there (MN). I tried a few times to get her to point it out, but there was always something that prevented the wanted outcome. My point is that whatever she knew as chamomile growing up in Slovenia does survive there in extreme northern Minnesota. With a large Slovenian immigrant population there, I suspect more than one person brought seed from Europe.

Rick