It has a drain hole, I can see water draining out after watering.

As for fertilizer, I have not used it before as this was a gift from a friend. Thus, I had no idea how she cared for it but she told me borage grows well and without much fuss. :)

One of the key questions was, 'How long has it been in the same pot?'.

The plant might be extremely root bound, a condition which can rob it of more than 90% of its potential for growth and vitality, and wreck its eye appeal as well. If it's been in that pot since last spring, there is little doubt that root congestion or poor root health is a limiting factor.

Regular supplemental nutrition (fertilization) is an essential part of growing plants in pots. At all times plants require an adequate supply of about 13 nutrients they normally take up via the root pathway, and the grower has the responsibility of providing those nutrients, as the grow medium used for conventional container culture cannot be relied upon to supply them. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is a very good 'go to' fertilizer for almost everything you're likely to grow in a container.

* Lift the plant from the pot. If the root/soil mass remains intact, the plant needs a repot. You can get away (for now) with simply teasing out the roots from the side of the root/soil mass and moving the plant to a slightly larger container and filling in the extra space with fresh soil. Make sure the roots are kept wet while making the transition. This is not a good time to repot, but you probably should anyway if it is severely root-bound. Plan on doing a full repot next June if you live in the Northern Hemisphere.

* Flush the soil when it next needs water by slowly pouring through the soil a volume of room temp water equal to at least 10X the volume of the pot the plant is in, then fertilize.

* The plant does not like wet feet, so it would be best if you use a "tell' to "tell" you when to water.

Drop a marble, button, other object into the pot each time you water. When you're about to drop the 4th or 5th item in the pot, fertilize instead. This will allow you to keep track of what plants are ready to be fertilized.

Plants are genetically programmed to tolerate conditions in a fairly narrow range, like Goldilocks of Three Bears fame. Not too cold or too hot, not too wet or too dry, not too much or too little light, humidity, warmth, etc. When plants are asked to deal with conditions at or beyond the limits they are genetically programmed to deal with, it causes stress; so, as growers our only job is to identify what cultural conditions are limiting and to correct them to the greatest degree possible, so all plants in containers need to be fussed over to some degree, some more than others. If your plant is Melissa officinalis (commonly called lemon balm/ lemon borage) and you're growing it indoors, a 'little fussing' is sort of baked into the cake because they want to be outdoors.

Have you any other questions or input?

Al

Thanks for the wealth of advice in the post! I will look into repotting the plant and getting some of those fertilizer you mentioned. The challenge for me is I do not know when to water or fertilize. It seems pretty straightforward to you but I don't know what is so called wet soil or dry. To me, the soil seems pretty moist all the time but I am not sure if the roots are taking it well or at all.

Is there any soil type I should use or avoid?

I'm not sure how scientific you want to get, but you can learn about How Water Behaves in Container Media if you follow the link provided. The basic premise is that water retention in soils is driven primarily by the size of the particles that make up the soil. A good illustration of how to avoid excess water in a container medium (medium = soil, media = soils) can be seen by looking at images of the 2 basic media I use.

What stands out immediately is the size of the particles and the very small percentage of fine material the media contain. That is specifically by design to limit the amount of excess water a medium can hold. It's far better to use a medium that holds no excess water and water more often than it is to use a medium that holds a lot of excess water and offers watering intervals measured in weeks rather than days. Once a grower gets to a place where (s)he does not have to battle the grow medium for control of the plants vitality (health), growing suddenly becomes much easier and forgiving, which leads to better results and more personal satisfaction.

This is the fertilizer I referred to:

You will likely need to purchase it online, but it is worth the extra effort. It is complete nutrition from a single source, and precious few fertilizers can make that claim. It also has other attributes I can explain if you have interest.

When I posted above, I forgot to add something about using a tell to help you figure out what an appropriate watering interval might be. I'll leave that below.

This Overview of Good Growing Practices will help you avoid all the big and most common issues you might come up against.

Using a 'tell'

Over-watering saps vitality and is one of the most common plant assassins, so learning to avoid it is worth the small effort. Plants make and store their own energy source – photosynthate - (sugar/glucose). Functioning roots need energy to drive their metabolic processes, and in order to get it, they use oxygen to burn (oxidize) their food. From this, we can see that terrestrial plants need plenty of air (oxygen) in the soil to drive root function. Many off-the-shelf soils hold too much water and not enough air to support the kind of root health most growers would like to see; and, a healthy root system is a prerequisite to a healthy plant.

Watering in small sips leads to avoid over-watering leads to a residual build-up of dissolved solids (salts) in the soil from tapwater and fertilizer solutions, which limits a plant's ability to absorb water – so watering in sips simply moves us to the other horn of a dilemma. It creates another problem that requires resolution. Better, would be to simply adopt a soil that drains well enough to allow watering to beyond the saturation point, so we're flushing the soil of accumulating dissolved solids whenever we water; this, w/o the plant being forced to pay a tax in the form of reduced vitality, due to prolong periods of soil saturation. Sometimes, though, that's not a course we can immediately steer, which makes controlling how often we water a very important factor.

In many cases, we can judge whether or not a planting needs watering by hefting the pot. This is especially true if the pot is made from light material, like plastic, but doesn't work (as) well when the pot is made from heavier material, like clay, or when the size/weight of the pot precludes grabbing it with one hand to judge its weight and gauge the need for water.

Fingers stuck an inch or two into the soil work ok for shallow pots, but not for deep pots. Deep pots might have 3 or more inches of soil that feels totally dry, while the lower several inches of the soil is 100% saturated. Obviously, the lack of oxygen in the root zone situation can wreak havoc with root health and cause the loss of a very notable measure of your plant's potential. Inexpensive watering meters don't even measure moisture levels, they measure electrical conductivity. Clean the tip and insert it into a cup of distilled water and witness the fact it reads 'DRY'.

One of the most reliable methods of checking a planting's need for water is using a 'tell'. You can use a bamboo skewer in a pinch, but a wooden dowel rod of about 5/16” (75-85mm) would work better. They usually come 48” (120cm) long and can usually be cut in half and serve as a pair. Sharpen all 4 ends in a pencil sharpener and slightly blunt the tip so it's about the diameter of the head on a straight pin. Push the wooden tell deep into the soil. Don't worry, it won't harm the root system. If the plant is quite root-bound, you might need to try several places until you find one where you can push it all the way to the pot's bottom. Leave it a few seconds, then withdraw it and inspect the tip for moisture. For most plantings, withhold water until the tell comes out dry or nearly so. If you see signs of wilting, adjust the interval between waterings so drought stress isn't a recurring issue.

Al

When you checked online sources which name did you use? This plant is not actually a true Borage (genus Borago). So it’s possible you found care notes for a different plant if you looked for Borage. If you research it again try using Plectranthus forsteri.