In this day and age, when we tend to worry about almost everything, there’s been some concern about the range of the new generation of electric cars and the speed with which we will be able to charge them. I am not among those worriers: battery technology is advancing so quickly that I’m sure that in a very short space of time we will be able to drive hundreds of miles in one go, and to recharge our batteries even more quickly than using petrol pumps.
All of which is a rather roundabout way of introducing you to one of nature’s great rechargers: the tiny borage flower. We have dozens of borage plants in our gardens, and we even use the flowers as a colourful garnish to our home-grown salads. (We don’t drink much Pimm’s these days, where borage was traditionally used as decoration: who needs Pimm’s when we have prosecco, Negroni and Aperol Spritz?)
But back to recharging. Did you know that when a bee has taken the nectar from one of the tiny blue flowers, the borage plant replenishes it all within two minutes? Now that’s what I call recharging!