I grow a lot of varieties of Nigella, or “love in the mist” as it’s commonly known. It’s easy to grow from seed, can be sown in the fall as we’re putting the field to bed, and blooms in the spring without much fuss. Some varieties I grow for the delicate flowers. Some I grow for the ballooning seed pods.
And then there’s this one. Nigella ‘Transformer’ is truly an odd ball. It’s no doubt a mutant of another variety that someone thought to save seed from and propagate. Lucky us!! The flowers are pretty darn cool and the seed pods look like green jester hats (check them out in the floral crown at the top) that hold up indefinitely out of water.
But before you rush out to buy seed and plant your entire field or backyard in these, be forewarned that they aren’t highly productive or tall. I’ve sown 500 seed the past two seasons and both years have had maybe 200 plants to cut from, most no taller than 12 inches. They’re great for wedding designs though and I’ll keep growing them. I’m pretty smitten!
These will be used in our upcoming floral design workshop at the farm in the evening on June 19th. We’ll be making awesome floral crowns/wreaths like the one pictured above. There will be frolicking at sunset and seasonal cocktails. Join in the fun and see these crazy Transformers for yourselves!
Jennie this is crazy gorgeous!! Any chance you might be willing to sell some of your seed? I am crazy for flowers with texture like that.
Hey Clare. I don’t have any left at the moment. You can buy it from Gloeckner. It’s definitely awesome if you like texture! 🙂
I love Nigella but have a really hard time growing it.
Kathleen, are you sowing it in the fall? It does much better if you direct sow it in the garden/field in autumn, a few weeks before your last frost. It will then germinate and stay tiny all winter, putting on good roots. Then it’ll shoot up in spring, all happy. 🙂
I’m trying to grow Nigella, but didn’t plant seed until the spring. Jennie – did you mean to say to sow in the fall a few weeks before the first frost?
Yes, I meant first frost in fall. Exhausted and not making sense all the time. 🙂 Sorry for any confusion.