Seeds in my garden_Nigella damascena: ballerina in light tutu.

Nigella, also called "naughty maiden" in Italian, is an old cottage garden flower, a favourite for scattering wherever there is a gap in the flower border, but also good for short-term massed bedding and for drying.
The best SEEDing time is between march and april, directly outside in Italy where tempErature is quite mild at this period of the year...but this year! Thus, I planted mine in container pots and I have located in the glasshouse, taking them out once a day to help plants to aclimatise and get some fresh air. I'm planning to locate them in bigger pots by the end of this week, hoping to be able to plant them in a sunny POSITION as soon as the weather gets a bit better (there's a very unpredictable british-like weather here in Venice these days..).
Se Dio vuole (if God wants..common Italian expression), my Nigella will FLOWER this summer! Waiting to take MY own pictures, I add some from Internet with some more info about different varieties. :)
BEST PLANTED _under a climbing rose (pink or apricot tones)_ around pink, blue or purple Delphinum_ together with dwarf or wheeping Tropeolum majus _in a meadow with Poa and Festuca, Veronica, Licnide Lychnis.


For many years 'Miss Jekyll' was the only widely available variety, and it is still popular for its dependable masses of sky-blue flowers. These last for about eight weeks, and it is worth deadheading or sowing a later batch to extend the season. Sowing in autumn or in March, in a cold frame in paper pots in cold districts, produces early flowers. In windy gardens, support the stems with twiggy sticks.

Introduced over 400 years ago, 'Persian Jewels' popular annual with its very finely divided, feathery leaves and showy flowers, which in this variety come in many shades of blue, rose, pink and white, is of the easiest cultivation needing little more than sow and forget. The flowers are splendid for cutting, and the attractive, inflated seed pods can be dried for winter decoration.

'Oxford Blue' is a tall annual, with featherly foliage and dark-blue, double flowers for a short-period in summer. Grow in well-drained soil in full sun. Sowing in autumn or in March, in a cold frame in paper pots in cold districts, produces early flowers. Plant with Salvia x sylvestris 'Mainacht'.