Nigella question

[FineBerol]

Is this after flowering or before?

Not sure whether to deadhead or if it's about to bloom .
I have hundreds to sort out.

That's after flowering OP. Here's one of mine halfway through, and one after. 🙂

They self seed like crazy, so if you don't want a nigella forest, rip some or all out now.

I have learnt from this year and will be ripping the vast majority out!

Dead heading won’t encourage further flowers. Many people leave the seed pods as they think they look attractive. Or take out the whole plant when there are no more flowers if you want to avoid it selfseeding

Can I ask a follow up question?

I’ve had these in my garden & only knew them by the name ‘love-in-a-mist’, so pretty little things but not edible

I’ve bought nigella seeds for salads before - is this plant where they come from?

I’ve loads of borage, nasturtiums etc as I love plants that double or triple up (pretty, bee-friendly, edible, nice scent, topical uses, fly-repellant etc - any combo of these)

So are the seeds of this plant edible for humans?

@BarefootbyMoonlight

Love -in-the-mist seeds are edible and taste intense, nutmeg-like flavour when finely ground. This spicy flavour is delicious in condiments and sweets. However, only ever eat the seeds in small quantities, as they contain the toxic alkaloid damascenin.

Thank you @EllaRaines and for the warning, I’ll be watching out for the seed pods now to try out the flavour carefully in moderation! 😋

The seeds are the closely related Nigella sativa (sativa means cultivated, as in Cannabis sativa). Love in the mist is Nigella damascena.

Literally never seen these before, they are beautiful!

Thanks Meredint so the damascena is sort of wild cousin to the cultivated one? Maybe bred to have less of the damaging compound?

I’ve lots of plants from a seed saver place, heritage varieties of veg mostly with the odd native flower thrown in.

A few don’t taste much different to commercial seeds packet varieties but most do have noticeable differences in taste or look, it’s a bit of fun to try something unusual

This year it’s dyer’s camomile & woad 🤣the latter mostly as it’s fun to say ‘woad’ <childish> and the seeds look v pretty on their own

@Morewineplease10 Nigella Persian Jewels are stunning and are easily grown from seed.

Probably a bit late to sew them now though.

No, they're both equally wild species, so both wild cousins to each other. But N sativa was the one that people had been using for centuries because ti had beneficial properties that the other lacked, and so that was reflected in the name once plants began to be given binomial names in the 18th century. I can't find anything on line to suggest that people have gone to the trouble to isolate and breed separate strains.

It is probable that N sativa was used because the species naturally has a beneficial compound thymoquinone, and it does not have the toxic damascenin which is contained in N damascena.

[[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250002686_Morphological_microscopic_and_chemical_comparison_between_Nigella_sativa_L_cv_black_cumin_and_Nigella_damascena_L_cv compares the compounds contained in both.

Gosh, I've learned a lot today!

Thank you

i'll get snipping then! but leave some alone for seeds next year.

Ah I read you could deadhead Nigella for new blooms... hasn't that worked for you guys?

I'd never really thought about it. Usually you have so many plats that's there's no real requirement to encourage new blooms, and in any case they seem to carry on flowering perfectly well by themselves.