Early-flowering Borage is a herbaceous perennial that is low maintenance with showy flowers as well as tolerant to erosion, drought, and heavy shade. It can grow in full sun, but for the best performance, shade is the answer. Trachystemon comes from the Greek language, trachys translating to rough and stemon to stamen. Orientalis indicates that the origin is eastern or from the orient. It is native to Turkey, and Bulgaria. Flowers appear in early spring on leafless stems up to 10" tall. Once the flowers have bloomed, the 10-12" showy, overlapping, mounding, heart-shaped leaves will fill in, creating a blanket of foliage that will deter weeds from taking over your garden. An excellent ground cover and requires little to no care except to keep it in its place. Spreading by rhizomes, it will naturalize in your garden. This will also cause this plant to be somewhat weedy. It may be best used in a shady naturalized area. Insects, Disease, and Other Plant Problems: No significant problems.
Curated pairwise relationships between this plant and others in the library — who feeds
whom, who competes, who confuses the pests. Green reads as a good pairing, red as one to avoid.
No curated interactions recorded for this species yet.
Also noted by NC State
Related species the NC State Plant Toolbox flags for this plant — look-alikes to tell
apart, and plants that play a similar role in a planting. Ones we carry in the library are linked.