Annuals & Biennials

Nigella
nigella

- Height 2 ft (60 cm)
- Planting distance 9 in (23 cm)
- Flowers early summer to early fall
- Any good soil
- Hardy annual

The blue, white, and pink flowers of this enchanting annual bloom all summer long in a haze of feathery soft green foliage. As the flowers fade, each seedpod swells and ripens into a pale brown, rebanded spiky globe, suitable for drying for winter decoration. Invaluable for a border, nigella also provides superb cut flowers. Two species and their cultivars are widely grown in gardens.

Popular species and cultivars
Nigella damascena (love-in-a-mist) has showy blue or white flowers surrounded by a leafy green crown of threadlike bracts from early to late summer. Popular cultivars include 'Miss Jekyll,' with large bright blue flowers, and 'Persian Jewels,' with light and dark blue, rose-pink, and white flowers. Nigella hispanica has larger blue flowers than the more commonly grown love-in-a-mist. Appearing from midsummer to early fall, these have a slight scent and a cluster of red stamens. The seedpods are less inflated than those of love-in-a-mist.

Annuals
and
Biennials