There’s something very appealing about the name ‘love-in-a-mist’. It sounds old-fashioned and romantic, which suits a flower that has been a cottage-garden favourite for a long time.
The flowers are intricately structured and appear to float above a light, frothy mass of finely-cut foliage. (The foliage looks very like that of fennel. So much so, that one of the names of the species Nigella sativa is ‘fennel flower’.)
The combination of the complex flower structure and the angular shapes of the foliage make it a very pleasing plant to photograph. (The seed-pods too. They are strikingly puffed-up globes that have spiky-looking little horns on top and a ruff of feathery foliage around the base.)
Nigella flowers come in blues, pinks and white. Those I like best are the flowers that are white, but veined with blue or green, as in the photo below. These have an especially elegant look, which demands that you get really close to the flower so that you can see it properly. For next year, I’d like to grow and photograph some of the cultivars that have dark centres – ‘Midnight’, ‘African Bride’ or ‘Delft Blue’.
Right now, though, I need to get out in the garden and collect some of the ripe brown seed-heads that are just waiting to sprinkle their seeds everywhere. Then I can sow them in among the bulkier plants in my newest border. They’ll provide an excellent contrast to the shapes of irises and large-leaved foliage plants, as well as the bolder flowers of dahlias and echinaceas. If I’m organised enough, I’ll try to sow them at intervals throughout the spring and summer, so that they give a longer season of foliage and flowers.
They may seem small and rather shy, as they hide in their cloud of foliage, but nigellas are a really pretty and useful garden plant. They do deserve to have their seeds sprinkled in any spare corner you may have!
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
Gorgeous…delicate…pure! I can add more adjectives, Ann!
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Thank you Indira! Your adjectives have made me smile – I really appreciate them! š
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Wow, that first picture in particular has such a wonderful (photographic) structure.
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Thank you Jill! Nigellas have a very satisfying structure to photograph – they really help you make a good image. š
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What a lovely and intricate flower. Nice image, Ann.
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Thank you Steve! They’re pretty and they’re very easy to grow…ideal really! š
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Stunning photos, particularly the first one – really beautiful
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Thank you Phao! I’m glad you like them…they’re great flowers to photograph. š
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Love nigella and that’s an extraordinarily beautiful photo you’ve taken Ann. Amazing focus with exquisite detail.. I’m feeling totally in awe!
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Thank you for the lovely comment, Liz! It means a lot to me. š (And I love finding flowers like this to photograph – they’re so rewarding.)
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My pleasure. If you check Twitter you’ll find I’ve retweeted your nigella tweet š
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Thank you! I’d forgotten about Twitter because it’s just set up to automatically tweet posts…good to know they get seen. š
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Oh I see.. yes they do come through each time you do a post!
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Love the dainty flower and the bud pix. Beautiful – I have never seen anything quite like them!
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Thank you Syd! They’re a flower that would be easy to pass by without noticing the detail – you really need to see them close-up. I need to sow some more of them! š
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Lovely pics! I think I like the seedpods even more than the flowers.
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The seedpods are great – very sculptural. I’m hoping that I can find some that are still fairly intact to photograph for a seed-heads post… š
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All photos are beautiful !
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Thank you – I’m glad you enjoyed them! š
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you’re welcome !
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