PlantSowGrow
How to grow Love-in-a-Mist (Miss Jekyll)
Nigella damascena
🌸 Flower
🌱 Grown each year
Sky-blue flowers nestled in fine, misty foliage, followed by striking seed pods. Sow once and it self-seeds for years.
At a glance: Sow mid March to mid June.
When to sow, plant and harvest
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Sow outdoors
Flowers
Timed for a typical UK garden (last frost mid-April). The app uses your own town's frost dates.
Growing Love-in-a-Mist (Miss Jekyll): what it needs
- Light
- Full sun · 6+ hours a day
- Watering
- Water in dry spells; pots daily in summer
- Soil
- Any well-drained soil
- Spacing
- 20 cm
- Height
- 45 cm
- In pots
- Grows well in containers
- Feeding
- Liquid feed every two weeks once flowering starts
- Hardiness
- USDA zones 2–11
- Difficulty
- Easy
Step by step
- Mid March – mid June · 4 weeks before the last spring frost
Sow Seeds Outdoors
Sow thinly where they are to flower, in a sunny spot, into raked, weed-free soil. Sow where it will flower — it doesn't like being moved.
- 10–14 days after “Sow Seeds Outdoors” · Late March – early April
Check Germination
Seedlings should appear in 10–14 days. Keep the soil moist. If sown outdoors, thin them to 20 cm apart once they have two true leaves.
- 66–96 days after “Check Germination” · Early June – early July
First Flowers
Take a photo for your journal!
- Mid October – early November · around the first autumn frost
Clear or Collect Seed
When frost blackens the plants, pull them up for the compost heap. Leave a few seedheads first if you want to save seed.
