During a recent trip to Green Spring Gardens, a county-run historic garden near where I live, I was delighted to see that Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) was in bloom. Love-in-a-mist is a flower that looks like it came from outer space, with wild tendrils shooting out of its middle and green spiky vegetation surrounding it. Like many forms of love, the flower simultaneously looks to be both inviting and threatening.
I find this flower to be incredibly beautiful and exotic and it is one of my favorites. Typically Love-in-a-mist is blue, but it also comes in shades of white, pink, and lavender. Many flowers lose our interest after they have bloomed, but I find the seedpods of Love-in-a-mist to at least as intriguing as the flower itself, as you can see in the final photo.
When I did a little research I learned that the striped, balloon-shaped object that I call a seedpod, is actually an inflated capsule composed of five fused true seedpods, according to an article by Wisconsin Horticulture. I also discovered that the thorny-looking spikes that make up the “mist,” which are not sharp, despite their appearance, are technically bracts, a specialized kind of leaves.
I smile whenever I use the name of this flower—we can always use more Love, whether it comes in a mist, in the sunshine, or even in a downpour.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Thanks for sharing. I have never seen this flower before. It’s beautiful and unique!
Thanks. As my posting suggests, I really like this flower and look forward to seeing it each year.
I completely understand why!
The seed heads are wonderful in dried arrangements.
I must confess that I have no experience with flower arrangements, but I can easily see how the seed heads would make wonderful accents.
Perfect photography 😉 I love this plant very much
Thanks, Rudi. Does this plant grow in European gardens too?
Yes it does Mike
How wonderful! (All of it!) Thank you so much for sharing, Mike!
Thanks, Laura. It is hard to use the word “love” and not get distracted by all that the word evokes in our heads and in our hearts. 🙂
Lovely photos, Mike. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in person. You’ve probably featured it here before.
Thanks, Dan. I definitely have featured this flower before. As you certainly realize, my photos are mostly local and the subjects are cyclical, based mostly on the season of the year. I tend to visit the same places over and over and although I sometimes discover new things, many “favorites” have a recurring role in my posts. I think that your approach is quite similar in that regard. 🙂
Correct. We are creatures of habit 🙂
Lovely close up shots Mike. And that includes the seed pod. Thanks
What a stunning plant!
Very nicely photographed, Mike. I’m jealous it doesn’t grow in our area.
Gorgeous
This would have to be one of my favourite flowers!
🙂 Me too!
This plant is totally weird looking. I’ve never seen it before. Thanks for sharing!
Weird is wonderful! Seriously, though, it’s a really cool looking flower that I only see, alas, in a few gardens that I visit.
I planted seeds in our first garden simply because of its botanical genus name ‘Nigella’ and my curiosity for its strange appearance. It’s a great plant to have in the garden! I checked my info just now, and btw, in Wikipedia I found another name for it that I wasn’t aware of.. devil in the bush LOL 😀 You managed to get great photos, not the easiest plant to photograph well I’d imagine.
I love the “Nigel” connection. I also was not aware that it was known as “devil in the bush.” As for the photos, the flower is a little tough to photograph, especially because I wanted to be sure to capture the spiky bits. 🙂
I have a beautiful little book I purchased years ago at the NYC Public Library gift store entitled, “The Language of Flowers.” Written by a husband for his wife in 1913 (she was an avid gardener) on their anniversary, it contains an alphabetically list of flowers, plants, herbs and an adjective next to each describing, ex. Daisy White (Innocence). Had to see if Love in a Mist was included and voila, there it was with the word aside “perplexity.” I love this sweet book.
That sounds like a really cool book. Perplexity? I will have to think about how that fits Love in a Mist. 🙂