Yes, this is a good plant. Self sows well. Needs no care. If you had one and it dropped seeds, most likely it will be back in the general area...they do move around some. I had majority of blooms in May. But one plant sprouted in August and flowered thereafter. On the West coast, in the Fall, just fling your wildflower seeds out where you want Spring flowers. The rains generally will do the rest of the work for you.

kathi - great idea about putting the seed pods in the house party music - thanks for the suggestion to take the seed head and spill in where I want them - duh! I would like to see them in and around a bed of other flowers and right now they are in a grouping almost all by themselves and vikki, putting them in with lilies is a great idea...I'm heading towards adding roses to my yard and then I agree they would be lovely partnered with them lisa - I am using the two camera settings you had suggested and some work, others don't, but it sounds that is pretty much the way it is with digital cameras - I plan to spend some time with the manual this summer as I'd like to get better with macro shots - but is sure if fun to play with it

It is an annual. Mine is blooming now. It is a late spring bloom. I do not water my garden and some years it does not come up, but this year I have three types of Nigella in bloom. It blooms at the same time as larkspur and can be planted at the same time as larkspur in late November and December. It wants some winter moisture to get it to Germinate. It got that this year here west of Austin. It grows in part sun/ part shade on a loose tree enriched soil over limestone . I think it would like a richer slightly more moist environment than what I give it. It is easy to grow and reseeds, or you can collect and replant.

Since you've been removing the spent flowers, I guess that you won't have any of the fabulous seed pods to use in your arrangements. That's the main reason that I grow Nigella. The flowers sure are a delight, though. You're asking the impossible....slow down and preserve flowering for one batch......speed up growth and flowering in the other. I'd be ultra conservative with the fertilization of the first batch. You probably know that already. I hope that your whole family has a truly wonderful day. Don't stress out over the flowers, you don't have much control over mother nature......or chickens, lol. When I was just starting out in my profession after graduating, the VP of the posh resort where I was working would always insist that I tell him, months in advance, what weekend the massive plantings of azaleas would be at their peak. They always had a flurry of activities to plan around the beautiful backdrop of the spring flowering shrubs. Ha! That guy was a real barrel of fun, lol.