How to Grow and Care for Love-in-a-Mist Flowers

About Growing Love-in-a-Mist Flowers in Your Home Garden

Love-in-a-Mist plants, or Nigella, is an old-fashioned annual. It looks great in cottage gardens. The fine, delicate, feathery green foliage resembles Asparagus foliage. Love-in-a-Mist flowers bloom from spring to early summer, disappearing in summer’s heat. Don’t wait any longer to grow this attractive bloomer for the first time. This guide on “How to Grow Love-in-a-Mist” will help you to successfully grow them for the first time and every time. If you’ve never grown this plant before, this is the year to do so. Buy a packet of Love-in-a-Mist seeds and get growing!

Love-In-A-Mist are ornamental plants. While they produce pretty flowers, they are not fragrant. They make great bedding plants. They will also look good in planters and even hanging baskets. Try them in window boxes, too. Love-in-a-Mist flowers can be used as cut flowers. Take the flower stems with seed pods attached to use in floral arrangements.

If you have deer roaming in your neighborhood, Love-in-a-Mist is a good flower choice. The plant has a strong bitter taste that deer avoid when food is plentiful. They may graze on the plants when food is scarce. However, this is unlikely to occur. In colder parts of the country, this annual plant has died off long before food sources become scarce in the winter. And in warmer regions, with no frost or freeze, food for deer is seldom scarce.

Did you Know? Love-In-A-Mist is related to Buttercup flowers.

Love-in-a-Mist is classified as a medicinal herb. Historically, the seeds have had uses in both the kitchen and in medicine.

Love-in-a-Mist Plant Specifications

Flower Colors: Colors include soft shades of white, blue, purple, and pink.

Flowers Bloom: Spring to early Summer.

Plant Height: 8 inches to 2 feet tall.

Ideal Soil pH: 6.0 – 7.5.

Light Requirement: Full sun to partial shade.

Hardiness Zones: 2 – 11

Is Love-in-a-Mist Toxic? Yes, but mildly toxic.

Deer Resistant? Somewhat

Number of Species: 20

Native To: Asia, Northern Africa, and Southern Europe.

Plant Type: Annual

Botanical Name: Nigella Damascena

Other Names: Bird’s Nest, Blue Crown, Blue Spider Flower, Chase the Devil, Devil in the Bush, and Love in a Tangle.

Is Love-in-a Mist Edible?

YES and NO

People in the native region for this plant of Northern Africa and Asia eat the small black seeds. You can eat them raw or cooked. Love-in-a-Mist seeds have a taste similar to nutmeg. They are also bitter.

Love-in-a Mist contains Damascenin. It is an alkaloid that is mildly toxic. Some people who eat it experience gastrointestinal discomfort and/or stomach upset.

Because it is mildly toxic, we recommend you do not eat Love-in-a Mist seeds.

Other Uses:

The oil from the plant is used in making perfume and lipstick.

Did You Know? The flower is a symbol of the bonds that bind people together.

Medicinal Applications for Love-in-a Mist

The plant is considered a medicinal herb. It has antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. As a result, there are many medicinal uses for Love-in-a-Mist. Here are some of them:

It helps relieve coughing.
Use it to help regulate menstrual cycles.
Aids in Asthma relief and other upper respiratory ailments.
Lowers cholesterol.
It helps to control diabetes.

Caution: Because this plant is toxic, we recommend you do not prepare home remedies yourself without the proper training to do so.

Light Requirements

Love-in-a Mist plants grow best in full, bright sunlight. They perform well in partial shade, too. However, as the amount of available light goes down, you should expect fewer and fewer blooms.

Annual Love-in-a-Mist Plant Propagation

The plants are propagated by seeds. Start Love-In-A-Mist seeds indoors or out.

Garden Tip: Use heated germination mats to speed seed germination and increase the germination rate.

For outdoor starts, sow them a week or two before the last frost in your area. The ideal soil temperature for germination is 60° F. So, wait for the soil to warm up a little in the spring before planting them.

Final Plant Spacing: Space plants 8 inches apart.

Love-In-A-Mist plants are prolific re-seeders. Use a packet or two to start your plants, and they will come up for years.

Day to Germination: 10 – 21 days.

How to Grow Love-in-a-Mist Flower Plants

Love-In-A-Mist plants are very easy to grow. They like full sun but will tolerate partial shade. They prefer rich, loose soil that drains well. Add a general-purpose fertilizer when planting them, then once a month after that.

Once your Love-In-A-Mist plants are established, they should grow well with few problems.

Keep the soil moist to slightly dry. Water them during dry periods, once or twice per week.

Keep the plants well weeded.

Each year, the seeds will drop and re-seed the area. They are very prolific. The plants will multiply and spread fairly quickly. You may want to consider border edging to contain them. So, if you want them to re-seed themselves, keep the area well-weeded and do not apply mulch around the plants.

Pruning Plants

Another thing you will love about this plant is it requires little or no pruning. That leaves more time for you to enjoy summer as you admire your Love-in-a Mist flowers from your hammock.

You may have to remove an occasional dead or damaged leave or stem. And, if you take few minutes to deadhead spent blooms, the plant will reward you with even more blooms.