Pop your head over the garden gate of any country garden in summer time and you’ll probably see a patch of Nigella.
Commonly called Love in a Mist, Nigella damascena is classic English country garden plant.
Actually it seems that Nigella is native to much warmer places in Southern Europe (such as Spain) North Africa and Syria.These beautiful flowers were introduced to the UK in the Elizabethan era during the 16th Century – luckily they seem to like it here too!
Easy to grow from seed, Nigella seedlings grow into sturdy quite bushy plants reaching just 30-50cm/12-20 inches in height.
Like most summer flowering annuals Nigella prefers a sunny position but they will grow perfectly well in a partially shaded spot such as the dappled shade of a large shrub or small tree. They prefer moist but well drained conditions.
Nigella has feathery finely dissected leaves, beautiful papery flowers and strikingly ornamental seed pods.
Flowers come in all shades of blue and pink plus white. The coloured flowers usually fade gracefully as the blooms age.
Nigella plants are in the buttercup family – Ranuculacae.
Nigella is lovely in the garden and it’s good for cutting too.
Another lovely plant to add to your seed list!
Hope your garden is blooming lovely too. Gillian 🙂
The seeds pods are lovely too. Blue Nigella seems to pick it’s spot it my garden – this year it seems to be a bark path. Reading your informative post perhaps that’s because it’s moist but well drained. I love the pink form!
They are all quite lovely I think.
The under gardener loves these. Unfortunately so do the pair of Wood Pigeons that visit regularly. I’ll be sowing under glass this time round.
They don’t like root disturbance so you’ll get better plants if you CAN sow direct or grow them in cells which can be easily planted.