How to Grow Nigella From Seed

Also known as Love-in-a-Mist, Nigella damascena is an annual that produces feathery foliage and abundant flowers in shades ranging from blue to pale pink or white. Nigella plants grow to about 24 inches in height. The flowers are lovely in the garden or for cutting, and they make excellent dried flowers. The interestingly shaped seed pods are also used in dried arrangements. Once established, nigella self-seeds easily, making replanting unnecessary. Nigella is a frost-tolerant, cool-weather annual that blooms best in spring and fall. Plant seeds every three or four weeks for a continuous display of flowers, or allow the plants to self-seed throughout the growing season for continuous bloom.

Garden rake
Straw mulch
Garden hose or watering can
Tiller, optional
Shovel, optional
Hoe, optional

Instructions

- 1
  Select an area in full sun and prepare the soil where you want the nigella to grow. About two to four weeks before the last expected frost, till the soil to a depth of 8 to 9 inches, or dig the area with a shovel and break the clods with a hoe until the soil is light. Rake the planting area smooth.
- 2
  Scatter the nigella seeds lightly in the prepared soil. Nigella seedlings do not transplant well, so seed them directly where you want them to grow. Press the seeds into the surface of the soil, but don’t cover them.
- 3
  Mulch loosely with straw or other light mulch, just enough to keep birds from eating the seeds.
- 4
  Water the seedbed and keep it moist but not soggy. Seedlings should appear in four to seven days.
- 5
  Add an additional layer of mulch to shade out weeds when the seedlings are a few inches tall.

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