Nigella damascena seed
LATIN NAME: Nigella damascena
COMMON NAME: Love-in-a-Mist
Love-in-a-mist is the charming, airy annual of the cottage border, one of the prettiest of the old garden flowers. The slender, upright plant carries the fine, thread-like, divided leaves that make a soft, misty haze around the stems, and the lovely, bowl-shaped flowers of the clear blue, the white, the pink and the purple open through the summer, each set in its own fine ruff of the foliage. The flowers are followed by the curious, inflated, striped seed capsules that are as handsome as the flowers, and the plant is a fine, easy, generous self-sower of the sunny border. It is a plant of the open, sunny, well-drained ground.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The love-in-a-mist has its own niche in the plant science, studied for the fine, thread-like, divided leaves and the curious, inflated, striped seed capsules. The way the flowers are set in the fine ruff of the foliage has been looked at closely, and the plant keeps showing up in the work on the ornamental annuals and the plants of the buttercup family. The clear blue of the common form and the charming, airy habit have also made it a fine garden plant, and the love-in-a-mist is a regular subject of the studies of the easy annuals of the sunny border.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
The love-in-a-mist gives good service in the garden and the flower studio. The bowl-shaped flowers of the clear blue, the white, the pink and the purple open through the summer, and the curious, inflated seed capsules dry well and hold their form in the winter arrangements. The seeds have their own old record of use as a seasoning of the East, and the plant is a fine, easy, long-flowering choice of the sunny border and the cutting patch. It has been written up in the horticultural and the culinary papers for the airy blue flowers and the old uses of the seeds, and it is a fine, generous plant of the open, sunny, well-drained garden.
Love-in-a-mist is one of the prettiest of the old garden flowers, and the fine, thread-like leaves make a soft, misty haze around the stems. The curious, inflated, striped seed capsules are as handsome as the flowers, drying well and holding their form in the winter arrangements, and the seeds have their own old record of use as a seasoning of the East.
To grow the love-in-a-mist from seed, sow the seeds where they are to flower, at a shallow depth, thinning the seedlings to a hand’s width apart, keep the ground moist and the spot sunny. The seedlings are up within a couple of weeks and grow on fast. With the sun and the well-drained ground, the misty foliage and the blue flowers will colour the border through the summer.
Uses: Culinary/Aromatic/Industrial
(Love-in-a-mist) Finely divided leaves create a mist effect surrounding the lovely blue flowers. Seeds used in curries and bread, although its close cousin black cumin is better. Seeds stored with clothing repel insects. Valued in perfumery trade.