Middle Eastern Marvels - Garden Plants – Love in a Mist

Name – Nigella comes from the Latin word niger referring to its black seeds. The common name ‘Love-in-a-mist’ refers to the fine hair-like bracts that encircle the flower.

Description – This plant has rich blue flowers which seem to float amongst the finely cut leaves or bracts to give a charming show of bloom during the summer months. There are several Nigella species – the best for flowers is N. damascena, (from Damascus) but the one that is best known in culinary terms is N. sativa which is used for flavouring food and has the common name black cumin. The N. damascena plant’s seeds do have some of this flavour, but nothing like the same depth of taste. Very useful for bedding and cutting and the seed pods can be dried for winter decoration indoors

Origin – Nigella damascena is an elegant annual, reaching about eighteen inches high, the leaves are feathery and very divided, and the flower is surrounded by a ruff of similar leaves, giving rise to the common name. The spiky flowers are usually blue, but may be white or pink and one feature of these plants is that the flowers deepen in colour as they age. To grow them at home, its easiest to raise them from seed. Prepare the ground well and rake to a fine tilth before sowing. Sow an eighth of an inch deep in rows about a foot apart. Germination usually takes three weeks Once they are large enough to handle, thin out to about nine inches apart. Nigella prefer a sunny open site but will grow in most sites and soils. An early autumn sowing can be made in sheltered areas for earlier flowers the following year – if you sow sativa, you can put small paper bags over the seed heads to harvest the seeds for cooking.

For Decoration – This is a very useful flower for cutting and using in informal displays and the seed pods can be dried for winter decoration indoors.

Middle Eastern Love in a Mist photograph by aussiegall, used under a creative commons attribution licence

 

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