Finally, a plant A. I. Root promoted that I have grown a patch of (10'x10') to treat my bees! You know how things usually go when you do something to please an animal - they ignore it. (Maybe that is just cats?) Well, the bee didn't actually turn up their noses but they did not work it heavily.
Somewhere I read in my time-warp readings that borage is good for wet weather nectar when other plants are washed out or something. I might have that backwards. When I find it I'll update this post :-) Here is the blurb from A.I. Root's 1887 and 1888 catalogs' Bee Plant section, with Root as the writer.
A strong, hardy, rapidly growing plant, bearing a profusion of blue flowers. It may be sown any time, but will, perhaps, succeed best, at about corn planting time. As it grows tall, and branches out considerably, it should have plenty of room. I know that bees are very busy on it, all the day long, from July until Nov., but I do not know how much honey an acre of it would furnish.
It is easily tried, because it grows so readily, and if sowed on the ground after early potatoes are dug, you will get a nice crop of fall bloom. Sow broad cast, or in hills like corn.
In 1888 only: Borage is also used as a salad or cooked like a spinach.
Price 10c. per oz., or 75c per pound. If wanted by mail, add 18c. per lb. for bag and postage.
Now I'll throw in my experience with growing borage.
First, it is floppy.
Second, it falls over.
Third, rain beats it down.
So grow it next to something strong, or fill the area with pea sticks. It is pretty up close when not covered with mud. (Connecticut had a drought in 2017 punctuated with borage flattening rains.)
Among the prettiest of those wandering plants which find their most congenial haunts upon rubbish heaps on the outskirts of towns or villages, the borage certainly occupies a prominent place. Plants of such regions are wont to be dull in foliage and flower; but the borage, although its leaves are rough and inelegant, amply compensates for this by the brilliant blue of its five pointed star-like flowers.
This beautiful blue is, especially among our British plants, very characteristic of the Boraginaceœ, an order of which our borage is the type; we find it in the viper's bugloss (Echium vulgare), the small bugloss (Lycopsis arvensis), the various species of forget-me not (Myosotis), and in the alkanets (Anchusa), which, however, are doubtful natives of our soil; but none of the varying shades presented by these plants are more beautiful than the blue of the borage blossoms.
The uses of borage are, perhaps, open to the charge of being more imaginary than real—that is, if we take into consideration the exaggerated eulogisms bestowed upon it by the older writers.
"Those of our time," says Gerard, "do use the flowers in sallads, to exhilarate and make the minde glad. There be also many things made of them used everywhere for the comfort of the hart, for the driving away of sorrowe, and increasing the joie of the minde."
And then he goes on to tell as how " the leaves and flowers of borage put into wine maketh men and women glad and merrie, and driveth away all sadnesse, dulneese, and melancholic"; how "sirrupe made of the flowers of borage comforteth the hart, purgeth melanoholie, quieteth the phrenticke or lanatioke person"; and how "the flowers of borage, made up with sugar, doth all the aforesaid with greater force and effect."
The use of borage in claret cup and similar beverages at the present day is a relic of the belief in the above "vertues," as well as an agreeable and cooling addition thereto, while its blue flowers floating in the liquid have a pretty appearance.
But the use of borage against melancholy goes mach farther back than the days of Queen Elizabeth. According to Burton, who may be considered an authority on the subject,
"Helena's commended bowl to exhilarate the heart had no other ingredient, as most of our criticks conjecture, than this of borage;"
this "commended bowl" being the nepenthes of Homer, which was "of such rare vertue that if taken steept in wine, if wife and children, father and mother, brother and sister, and all thy dearest friends should dye before thy face, thou couldst not grieve nor shed a tear for them".
Incredulous persons might be inclined to regard this cheering property to be rather due to the medium in which the borage was taken, whioh a yet more ancient writer has characterized as that which "maketh glad the heart of man".
As a favourite plant of bees, borage is worthy of somewhat more attention than it generally receives. We know a good beekeeper who has a large bed of it near his hives, and heartily do the winged inhabitants appreciate the attention thus paid them. There are, indeed, few more cheerful combinations of sight and sound than that which is presented by such a borage bed on a bright July afternoon, when tho beautiful blue flowers are in full perfection, and the "murmuring of bees" pervades everything with its soothing hum. J. B. Q.
(His first name was Charles, but he was known as C.C..)
This brief summary of the rise and fall of the Chapman Honey Plant was written by Dr. C. C. Miller. While he slams it for bee pasturage, it will still make a great plant in the garden for you to observe the nectar gathering of honeybees and other local pollinators. By chance I just learned who he was in the history of beekeeping this morning. His Fifty Years Among the Bees, is a well-known memoir/bee how-to book that documents the life of a man who found his bliss was to follow honeybees for his life's work rather than be a physician. I don't know why people thought Echinops sphaerocephalus was introduced to the United states so late as Grant Thorburn had it in his seed catalog in 1827.
CHAPMAN HONEY PLANT (Echinops sphaerocephalus).
The Chapman honey plant was introduced from France about 1885. The bee journals of 1886 and 1887 devote a large amount of space to a discussion of this plant. It was brought prominently to the attention of American beekeepers by Hiram Chapman, of Versailles, New York, who planted about three acres of it at that place. He made such glowing reports of the plant at the National Beekeepers' Convention that a committee of prominent men was appointed to visit the Chapman home and report on the new plant at the convention of the following year. They made a lengthy and very favorable report, which is published in full on page 28 of the American Bee Journal for January 5, 1887.
Numerous beekeepers secured seed, and so attractive did the plant prove to the bees that favorable reports appeared frequently in the columns of the journals for the next few years. However, the great expectations were not realized, for it soon disappeared, and is seldom mentioned in current literature.
The following quotation from Dr. C. C. Miller, which appeared in Gleanings, in December, 1918, is probably a correct estimate of the value of the plant:
"After reading the British Bee Journal of September 26, I should have made a vigorous effort to secure a supply of seed of Echinops Sphaerocephalus, if I had no previous experience with the plant. No bee plant that I have ever grown was so attractive to the bees. Whenever the weather was favorable the heads were crowded. I have counted fourteen or fifteen bees on one at the same time."
This is the Chapman honey plant that had a big boom in this country a number of years ago; but it is not heard of now, and is not included among the honey plants in the bee books. Upon its introduction I planted quite a patch of it, and like Mr. Harwood, I never saw the bees so thick on any other plant. But close observation showed that the bees were not in eager haste in their usual way when getting a big yield, but were in large part idle. It looked a little as if the plant had some kind of stupefying effect on them. At any rate, I should not take the trouble to plant it now, if land and seed were furnished free.
Now here is a plant I am familiar with already, although I don't grow it...yet. Connecticut is certainly within its range of zones 3 to 7. I have a hard scrabble hill property on glacial sand so I am always looking for plants that don't have to go in rich soil. The globe thistle named the Chapman Honey-plant is Echinops sphaerocephalus. It is also referred to as Chapman's Honey-plant.
The following is text from A.I. Root's 1888 catalog's Bee Plant section, with Root as the writer.
Chapman Honey-plant (1888)
This is called in European countries, "globe thistle". It was introduced by Mr. H. C. Chapman, of Versailles, N.Y., who cultivates it extensively for honey, and claims it is a paying investment. His seed has been turned over to the government, and may be obtainable free by any bee-keeper. Where it is more convenient to get it of us, however, we can furnish it in 5-cent packages.
Isn't YouTube wonderful? Remember the world before the internet? I do.
By the way, Hiram Chapman, member in 1885 of North American Bee-keepers' Society, died in 1890 at age 80.
The following articles, from Gleanings in Bee Culture, Vol. 15, 1887, speak to why the plant created such interest.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE
CHAPMAN HONEY-PLANT
WRITTEN OUT BY PROF. McLAIN
AS considerable space has already been given to reports in regard to this plant, we thought it hardly worth while to go over the ground again; but as friend Chapman particularly wishes a full report from all the members comprising said committee, we subjoin the following:
The committee appointed by the North-American Bee-Keepers' Society, at the annual meeting held in Detroit, Mich., December, 1885, to investigate the merits of a honey-bearing plant now being cultivated by Mr. Hiram Chapman of Versailles, N. V., met at that place July 28, 1886.
One member of the committee, Mr. Manum, of Bristol, Vt.,was not able to be present; but as each member of your committee was furnished with a sufficient number of plants to afford opportunity for observing their growth and habits, and also to gain some information concerning the value of the plant as a honey producer, a letter from Mr. Manum, in which he gives the result of his experience and observation, is herewith appended. This plant, which Dr. Beal, of the Michigan State Agricultural College, and Mr. Scribner. Asst. Botanist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, tell us is Echinops sphoerocephalus, is an imported perennial, native in Central France, and, like all of the family to which it belongs, very rich in honey.
This plant will probably be popularly known in this country as the "Chapman honey-plant", so named on account of Mr. Chapman being first to cultivate it,
and being first to bring it to the notice of bee-keepers. We found three acres of the plant in bloom. The height of the mature plant is from 3 to 4 1/2 feet, and each root bears from 5 to 15 round balls, or heads, from one inch to 1 7/8 inches in diameter. These heads stand upright, and the entire surface is covered with small white flowers having bluish stamens.
The stalks and leaves so nearly resemble those of the common thistle, that, were it not for the head, the difference would not be easily noticed. There is, however, in this particular, a very marked difference, the appearance of the head being aptly described by its botanical name, which signifies roundheaded, and in appearance like a hedgehog. The flowerets on top of the head open first, then they open later along the sides of the ball, continuing in the order of nature around the entire surface of the sphere. Near to the stem the last flowerets open after the blossoms on the tops of the heads have disappeared, and the seed-capsules of the first blossoms have hardened.
Unlike the thistle, the seeds are provided with no balloon by which they may be borne by the wind. The seed is, in weight and appearance, very much like a small grain of rye; is inclosed in a capsule, and falls directly to the ground, if not seasonably gathered, not spreading more than oats, if left to fall without harvesting.meeting held in Detroit, Mich., December, 1885, to investigate the merits of a honey-bearing plant now being cultivated by Mr. Hiram Chapman of Versailles, N. V., met at that place July 28, 1886.
One member of the committee.Mr. Manum, of Bristol, Vt.,was not able to be present; but as each member of your committee was furnished with a sufficient number of plants to afford opportunity for observing their growth and habits, and also to gain some information concerning tho value of the plant as a honey produeer, a letter from Mr. Manum, in which he gives tho result of his experience and observation, is herewith appended. This plant, which Dr. Heal, of the Michigan State Agricultural College, and Mr. Scribner. Asst. Botanist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, tell us is Echinops Sphoerocephalus, is an imported perennial, native in Central France, and, like all of the family to which it belongs, very rich in honey.
This plant will probably be popularly known in this country as the "Chapman honey-plant", so named on account of Mr. Chapman being first to cultivate it, and being first to bring it to the notice of bee-keepers. We found three acres of the plant in bloom. The height of the mature plant is from 3 to 4 1/2 feet, and each root bears from 5 to 15 round balls, or heads, from one inch to 1 7/8 inches in diameter. These heads stand upright, and the entire surface is covered
with small white flowers having bluish stamens.
From the time of the appearance of the bloom upon the tops of individual heads until the fading of the last blossoms upon the lower part of the head near to the stalk, is about eight days; the continuance of the blooming depending upon the nature of the soil and the season; but the heads, or buds sent out from each individual shoot, and forming each individual cluster, vary in degree and size, so that the natural term of blooming and honey bearing may safely to reckoned at from 20 to 30 days. The term of blooming may also be prolonged to a considerable extent by cutting back a portion of the plants, and the facility with which the honey harvest may thus be prolonged constitutes an important feature when estimating the value of this plant.
The plant is hardy, easily propagated, perennial, and appears to flourish in all kinds of soil, and there is no danger of its becoming a pest or a noxious weed. It does not bloom until the second season; and as it does not spread in seeding, its extirpation would be easily accomplished. Its seed may be scattered in waste places, or it may be sown in drills or hills, like onion seed. It seems to be characteristic of the plant to root out all other vegetation, and take possession of the soil. No weeds, and but very little grass, was seen growing in the three acre plot observed.
A ten-acre field, sown broadcast and harrowed in like rye, has also made a vigorous growth, and seems to be taking possession of the soil, in opposition to quack-grass and weeds. As to the value of the plant to the honey-producer, there appears to be no room for doubt, whether quantity or quality, or both, be considered.
Within reach of Mr. Chapman's apiary, no other resources were accessible for honey-gathering. The severe and prolonged drought destroyed all other honey-yielding blossoms, and yet in some instances the trees were making an excellent showing in the hives. No definite conclusion could be reached as to the probable returns in pounds of honey from a given area. That the returns would be satisfactory, was evidenced by the fact that the entire area was "alive with bees," and they visited the flowers from daylight until dark, and sometimes eight or ten bees were upon a single head at one time.
Mr. Hubbard, who cultivated some of these plants obtained from Mr. Chnpman, represented that he had counted the number of visits made by bees to a single head from 5 A. M. to 7 PM. He reported the number as being 2135, actual count. In order that the committee might have some idea of the quantity of nectar secreted in the flowers of a single head, the day before our arrival Mr. Chapman had wrapped a thin paper about a head, the . half of which was in full bloom, and tied the paper around the stem with tape, thus preventing the bees from appropriating the nectar for 24 hours. Upon removing the paper on the forenoon of the day of our visit, the flowerets were found to be dripping with nectar, and the drops sparkled in the morning sun. Each of us have made similar tests with like results since that time. We cheerfully and confidently recommend this plant to the beekeepers of North America as a most valuable acquisition to the list of bee-forage plants.
We believe that a trial of the plant will, better than any further words of approval from us. publish its own commendation.
Respectfully submitted,
N. W. McLain.
A. I. Root.
L. C. Root.
The following is a report in regard to the plant, from Mr. Manum, who was absent at the time the other members of the committee assembled at Mr. Chapman's:
L. C. Root, Chairman of the Committee on the Chapman Honey-Plant—
Dear Sir:
—As I failed to put in an appearance when the committee met at Mr. Chapman's, in July last, it is not only due you, but to Mr. Chapman and the convention as well, that I make a short report of my experience with the Chapman honey-plant, 50 roots of which Mr. Chapman so kindly sent me last spring.
The plants thrived well through the summer, under moderate cultivation, and planted on light sandy soil. I did not take extra pains with them, as I wished to test their hardiness. The plants commenced to bloom July 14, and continued to bloom until Aug. 21, making 39 days that they continued in bloom; and from the first day of their blooming until the last, the little flower-balls were covered with bees everyday from early morning until dark, rain or shine (we had no very heavy rains during this period), the bees constantly going and coming. I have counted 16 bees on one ball at one time, all sucking the sweet nectar from the richly laden flowers of the Chapman honey-plant.
At Mr. Chapman's request I covered of the balls with tissue paper, and 2 with muslin. On the following day there were several bee-keepers here. I removed the paper from the balls, and, lo and behold! the flowers were filled—yes, covered, as it were, with honey. We found, by holding the hand under one of the balls, and jarring it the honey dropped in the hand enough to make several drops. In a moment a bee alighted on one of the uncovered balls, and never moved until its sack was filled, when it flew away.
On timing them I found that the bees filled themselves and flew away in two minutes and twenty seconds from the time the first bee alighted on the plant. The two balls that were covered with muslin were now uncovered; but the honey seemed to have evaporated, as there was but little visible, although I had noticed bees alight on the muslin, and try to suck honey through the cloth. This fact was conclusive to me that the bees could smell the honey through the cloth. I find that by cutting back the plants in June, they will bloom later in the season. This would be of advantage, perhaps, to those who are favored with an abundance of buckwheat for their bees to work on during August, as, by cutting it back, it would then commence to bloom the last of August, thereby affording good pasturage for bees in September.
In conclusion, I must say that I am well pleased with the plant, judging from this first year's trial; and I venture to say that the time is not far distant when it will be extensively cultivated for its honey-producing qualities. I expect to plant an acre next spring. Were it possible for me to meet with you at the convention, I would move a vote of thanks to Mr. Chapman for having introduced this valuable plant.
It is valuable, not only to beekeepers, but to the florist as well, because it is a very beautiful plant, and so very rare withal.
A traditional green down south, the Seven Top Turnip was, and is, appreciated by many people as a sign of spring and a good meal. The following description is from Root's 1887 seed catalog's bee plant section: Seven-Top Turnip. This plant, although not equal to the spider plant and Simpson honey plant, is entitled to a place next to them, because it bears its crop of honey in the spring, between fruit blossoms and clover. It should be sown in Aug. and Sept. It bears no root like the ordinary turnip, but only foliage that is used for greens.
Price of seed. 10c per oz., or 50c. per lb. If wanted by mail, 18 c. per lb. extra. From A. I. Root himself the following praise for the Seven Top Turnip.
TURNIP. The turnip, mustard, cabbage, rape, etc., are all members of one family, and, if I am correct, all bear honey, when circumstances are favorable. The great enemy of most of these in our locality (especially of the rape), is the little black cabbage flea. The turnip escapes this pest, by being sown in the fall, and were it not that it comes in bloom at almost the same time when the fruit trees do, I should consider it one of the most promising honey plants.
In the summer of 1877, Mr. A. W. Kaye, of Pewee Valley, Ky., sent me. some seed of what is called the "Seven-Top Turnip," saying that his bees had gathered more pollen from it, in the spring, than from anything else. I sowed the seed about the 1st of Oct., on ground where early potatoes had been harvested. In Dec, they showed a luxuriance of beautiful green foliage, and in May, following, a sea of yellow blossoms, making the prettiest "posy bed," I believe, that I ever saw in my life, and the music of the bees humming among the branches was just "entrancing," to one who has an ear for such music. I never saw so many bees on any patch of blossoms of its size in my life, as could be seen on them from daylight until dark. Friend K. recommended the plant particularly for pollen, but, besides this, I am inclined to think it will give more honey to the acre than anything that has heretofore come under my notice. We have much trouble here in raising rape and mustard, with the small turnip beetle or flea, but this turnip patch has never been touched; whether it is on account of sowing so late in the fall or because the flea does not fancy it, I am unable to say. The plants seem very hardy, and the foliage is most luxuriant, much more so than either the rape or Chinese mustard, which latter plant it much resembles, only having larger blossoms. As our patch was sown after the first of Oct., and the crop could easily be cleared from our land by the middle of June, a crop of honey could be secured without interfering with the use of the land for other purposes.
Friend K. also recommends the foliage for "greens," and says that he sows it in his garden for spring and winter use. We tried a mess of greens from our patch, in Dec, and found them excellent. Our seed was sown very thickly, in drills about one foot apart. This turnip bears only tops, and has no enlargement of the root. If I could get a ten-acre lot covered with such bloom during the month of August, I should not hesitate an instant to hand over the money for the necessary expenses. If we cannot get the blossoms in August, we can certainly have an abundant supply between fruit bloom and clover.
Turnip flowers
In 1909, Gleanings had this to say about the Seven Top, their enthusiasm not having flagged in two decades.
...If you have had no experience in the way of green manuring, just try a little plot in your garden first; and while I am about it there is still another plant—one that will stand thewinter more surely than any thing else I know of unless it is rye—the seven-top turnip that we have advertised in our seed catalog for so many years.
This plant does not make a turnip at all. It is grown simply for the top for feed, and for turning under, for bees and for seed.
We see by the Columbia State (South Carolina) that our old friend J. D. Fooshe, of Coronaca, S. C, has, during the past season, sold 9000 lbs. of this seven-top-turnip seed. Some of the older readers of Gleanings will remember friend Fooshe as one of the pioneers in queen-breeding. He has furnished The A. I. Root Co. queens for more than thirty years, and we have never had a complaint of them, and we do not know that he has ever complained of us.
I wish he would tell us about now much honey he got from his seven-top turnip in growing that 9000 lbs. of seed, and any thing else he may have to suggest from his long experience in growing seven-top turnip.
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