Native to rocky areas of North Africa and southern Europe, Nigella has a long season of interest.
Let me explain: Not only is love-in-a mist absolutely easy to start by sowing seeds directly into the soil in the spring but also it rewards the garden during the cool months with interesting flowers to cut. And if you can resist the urge to harvest, you get quirky seed pods when summer starts heating up.
Love-in-the-mist grows upright to heights of from one to two feet and produces flowers in cooling shades of white, blue, pink and purple. While I admire all the different varieties (more than 15 are widely available), my favorite is the traditional ‘Miss Jekyll Indigo’, with its rich blue blooms that float over the finely cut leaves.