SOWING INSTRUCTIONS
Starting Indoors:
Not recommended.
Starting Outdoors:
Recommended. Direct sow 3-4 weeks before last frost and again in early to mid-summer for continued bloom. Fall sow in zones 7-10.
PLACEMENT & CULTIVATION
Nigella, or love-in-a-mist, is a classic cottage garden flower long-loved for it is easy to grow, flowers freely, and produces abundant clusters of decorative seedpods. Grow in containers, the front of borders, or cut flower gardens. The inflated striped seed pods make perfect dried flowers; fresh-cut flowers are charming combined with calendulas and other small spring annuals. Excellent as a tulip and small bulb companion, its fresh foliage hides but never smothers the fading bulb foliage, the flowers adding another season of bloom. Deadhead to prolong flowering or allow the decorative seedpods to develop. Self-sows.
Fertilizer:
Mix in 1-2" inches of compost prior to planting.
Diseases & Pests:
No serious diseases or pests.
When to Cut for Bouquets:
Harvest freshly opened flowers; for dry use once seed pods have dried.