The sky blue flowers of Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) develop into equally decorative seed pods. The stems and balloon-like pods are dry and brittle by this point in the season and ready to shed their seeds.

 The optimum moment to gather the seed is when the pod is just about to split.

 Each pod contains around fifteen-twenty seeds. So a couple of pods is equivalent to a packet of seed which would cost a few pounds. Love-in-a-mist self-seeds in profusion at the music school and we let it do its thing. There are be hundreds of pods that are about to burst or have already done so.