Saving Nigella Seed
This post is part of my series on saving cut flower seeds.
Please see the Save Your Own Cut Flowers post about methods for selecting, harvesting, processing, and storing your seeds!
Nigella aka Love-in-a-mist
Nigella damascena, N. orientalis
A nigella that loves your climate and grows tall is a treasure! Save its seed. My favorite N. damascena is the delicate double white ‘Cramer’s Plum Loco’, though of course one must have the true blue types, too. ‘Moody Blues’ has performed well for me. Of course, I always grow them at the same time, so I end up with a mix in my seeds. To avoid that, just grow one at a time, or separate them onto different farms or by a big tall hedge/row of trees. The N. orientalis variety ‘Transformer’ is so lovely, and of course does not need to be separated intime or space since it’s a different species.
To save for seed, you can really harvest at any time once a large pod is formed, as seed will continue maturing inside the pod once cut. You know for sure seeds are formed when you hear them rattling in the pod or see them from the open holes in the top of the pod, or when they start falling out on the ground all over your drying shed because you forgot to put them in paper bags 😅. All you have to do at that point is crush the pods (fun!) and sift the seeds out from the debris. These are among the easiest seeds to clean.
Pass your batch through your screens and winnow to remove light material. You should get a good amount of seed that will be much less expensive than buying it in and will germinate like a dream. Store in a freezer if you have space, or in a cool dark place that has a stable temperature.
Learn more about seed saving and other gardening topics in my on-farm workshops!
Sparkling stars.
A happy farmer and her nigella hat.
So intricate!
Oops, somehow these grains of sand are exactly the same size as the nigella seeds and I couldn’t sift them out!