Love-in-a-Mist (Nigella damascena) profile

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena), also called ragged lady or devil in the bush, is an annual plant native to the Mediterranean. Love-in-a-mist can grow to between one and two feet (30 to 60 cm) tall and has lacy bright green leaves and white or blue flowers surrounded by wire-like leaves called bracts. The fruit of love-in-a-mist is a globular capsule. Love-in-a-mist is grown mainly in gardens in North America.

Love-in-a-mist picture

Love-in-a-mist info

Botanical Name	Nigella Damascena
Common Names	Love-in-a-mist, devil-in-the-bush, nigella, ragged lady
Plant Type	Annual flowering plant
Sun	Full Sun, Partial Shade
Hardiness Zones	NA (true annual); grown in zones 2 to 11 (USDA)
Flower color	Blue, purple, pink, white
Native Area	Southern Europe, north Africa, southwest Asia
Mature size	8 to 20 inches tall, 3 to 6 inches wide

Morphological characteristics of love-in-a-mist

Branch

Love-in-a-mist is an annual herb with a height of 35 -- 60 cm. The stem has sparsely short hair, the middle upper part is much branched.

Leaf

Love-in-a-mist leaves are primary or secondary pinnately lobed and finely lobed. The lower stem leaves are stalked, 2 -- 3 mm long, and the upper leaves are sessile.

Flowers

Love-in-a-mist flowers have a single branch-top and a 5-calyx, pale blue, petal-like, 8-12 mm long, elliptically ovate, and gradually narrow into claws at the base. The upper lip is shorter than the lower lip, its apex gradually Narrows into a linear shape, the lower lip is 2 deep cleft, the middle of the wider, apex and middle of the tuberous process; Stamens are numerous, anthers obtuse or slightly acuminate; Love-in-a-mist usually has 5 carpel, basally united into a complex ovary.

Fruit

The fruit of love-in-a-mist is swollen and fused at the base to form a capsule, 1.5 -- 2 cm long, with a decent tip and an 8 -- 10 mm tip beak. Love-in-a-mist has many seeds, oblate triangulate, black, surface rough or with small dots.

The ecological habits of love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-Mist is a species that thrives on wild land and is hardy to cold. Love-in-a-Mist prefers sunny, fertile, well-drained soil.

Love-in-a-mist propagation

Spring sowing, drill, row spacing 30-40.After the soil was leveled and raked fine, shallow trenches were opened, about 2-3cm deep. The seeds were evenly scattered into the trenches, then covered with soil and compacted. Seedlings emerged 12-15 days after sowing.

How to grow and care for love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-mist soil is suitable for fertile and loose sandy soil. Seeds are storable.

When the height of the seedlings of Love-in-a-mist is 5-7cm, the seedlings should be thinned and the spacing between the plants is 15-20cm. Weeding, soil loosening and watering should be done frequently during the growth period. During the fruit bearing period in summer, top dressing was needed once, applying 225-300kg urea and 450kg superphosphate per 1bm2 to increase seed yield.

Soil

Love-in-a-Mist can be potted or grown in the ground. Potted available garden soil 2, leaf rot soil and barnyard manure each 1 soil for the basin. Root tuber planting should be carried out in autumn, too late will be detrimental to plant growth, affecting the next spring flowering; Premature, because of the high temperature, the root is perishable. Plant seedlings in a pot when they have three true leaves.

Digging

Take a wire and put it around the rim of the pot and poke it in the pot twice. Don't turn the soil over. No hemp flowerpots.

Watering

Autumn and winter season is basically 3-7 days to pour through and not necessarily look at the basin soil. Dry soil is too wet and easy to cause root rot when watering as slowly as possible to prevent water too fast out of the root or wash away the matrix.

Light

Love-in-a-mist will develop the most vegetation in full sun, however it will do pleasant in partial shade.

Temperature and humidity

Sow in the early spring months when the soil temperature has reached 60 tiers Fahrenheit. The plant flourishes in temperatures between sixty five and seventy two degrees.

Fertilizer

Add a general-purpose fertilizer to the soil when planting Nigella damascena, and then fertilize it as soon as a month afterward.

Pruning

Cutting vegetation for bouquets and deadheading will preserve your vegetation flowering a bit longer, however you will sacrifice the charming seed pods. Love-in-a-Mist without difficulty self-sows, so you can skinny the seedlings to stop overcrowding. Harvest for bouquets when flower buds have totally coloured or pods have begun to develop.

Growing love-in-a-mist in containers

If developing Love-in-a-Mist in a pot, you can begin it indoors 4 to six weeks earlier than you are prepared to put the plant outside. However, it does not transplant nicely due to the fact of its lengthy taproot, so avoid repotting every time possible.

Love-in-a-mist toxicity

Like many plants, Love-in-a-Mist is mildly poisonous to humans. If ingested in adequate quantities, it can motivate vomiting or diarrhea. The plant is no longer poisonous to animals.

Varieties of love-in-a-mist

A quantity of N. damascena cultivars have been developed for gardens all through temperate areas. Common cultivars include:

'Miss Jekyll' is possibly the most famous sequence with flora in colorations of white, blue, and rose.

'Miss Jekyll Alba' is a double white-flowered cultivar; it has vibrant inexperienced seed pods.

'Persian Jewels' has a combine of bloom shades and grows 12 to 18 inches.

'Blue Midget' is a dwarf range that grows to solely about 10 inches; it is exceptional for edging.

'Cambridge Blue' is a long-stemmed variety, with double blue flowers, it is satisfactory for cutting.

Other cultivars really worth searching into consist of 'Mulberry Rose', 'Oxford Blue', and 'Albion'.

The distribution of love-in-a-mist

Love-in-a-Mist originated in the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Love-in-a-mist is now grown in Asia and northern China.

Love-in-a-mist uses

Edible value

Love-in-a-mist is a popular condiment found in India, Egypt, Greece and Turkey. Love-in-a-mist is used for vegetables, beans and curry food.

Medical uses

Love-in-a-mist has the effect of removing gastrointestinal parasites and prolactin.