Lovage

How to recognise it

Growth habit

Large, clump-forming perennial 1.5–2 m tall and 60–80 cm wide, with straight, hollow, hairless stems.

Leaf

Large, two to three times divided, with broad, toothed, glossy dark green leaflets; strongly scented of celery.

Flower

Small greenish-yellow flowers in broad, flat, compound umbels at the top of the stems, in June–August.

Fruit/Seed

Flat, oval, yellowish-brown fruits about half a centimetre long, with winged ribs and a strong scent.

Roots

Thick, fleshy rootstock with sturdy roots; an old plant is hard to dig out.

Confusion with

Celery has the same smell but stays much lower. Angelica looks like lovage but has rounded, greenish-white umbels and a different scent. Never pick wild umbellifers to eat: hemlock and other poisonous species look very like edible ones.

Flowering: June–August · Pruning: March and July

Why grow it?

• One plant gives enough leaves for a whole family for years: you can cut from April into autumn.
• A powerful flavour of celery and stock: a few leaves are enough for a pan of soup.
• The flat umbels feed hoverflies, parasitic wasps, beetles and other short-tongued insects, which also clear aphids from your vegetable garden.
• A tall, glossy plant that adds height to the vegetable garden; the hollow stems shelter insects in winter.
• A historic herb that already grew in medieval monastery gardens.

Lovage: where does it grow best?

• Does not grow wild here: it is a plant of vegetable gardens, herb gardens and cottage gardens.
• Sun to partial shade; in partial shade the leaves stay more tender.
• Deep, fertile, moisture-retentive soil: loam or clay with compost is ideal. On dry sandy soil you need to water in summer.
• Allow a square metre per plant and put it at the back, so that it does not grow over lower herbs.
• A large, deep pot is possible, but the plant then stays smaller and needs watering more often.

Goes well with

• Fennel: Another tall umbellifer for hoverflies and parasitic wasps.
• Chives: A low herb edging at the front, with purple pompoms for bees.
• Pot marigold: Orange flowers in the vegetable garden that attract hoverflies and bees.
• Sorrel: A perennial vegetable that likes the same rich, moist soil.
• Borage: Blue flowers for bumblebees in the same vegetable garden.

Lovage: when and how to plant it?

1. Buy a young plant from a herb nursery or garden centre: that is the quickest way.
2. You can also sow: sow fresh seed in August–September or indoors in pots in March–April, lightly covered. It germinates slowly and unevenly.
3. Plant in April or in September–October, 60–80 cm from other plants.
4. Mix a few spadefuls of compost into the planting hole and water well straight away.
5. Keep the soil moist in the first year and don’t harvest too much, so the plant can establish.
6. Never dig up plants from the wild; with lovage there is no need anyway, as herb nurseries stock it.

Care

Watering

Water generously in dry spells, especially in full sun: otherwise the leaves turn tough and bitter.

Feeding

A layer of compost around the plant in spring; no more is needed.

Harvesting

Cut young leaves and stems from April to September; the youngest leaves are the best. Use them fresh, or freeze or dry them.

Flowering stems

Cut off flowering stems if you mainly want leaves; leave a few for the insects and for seed.

Rejuvenating

Divide an old plant every four to five years in spring: that keeps it vigorous.

Tip: Use lovage sparingly: two or three leaves already give a full, stock-like flavour to a pan of soup. Cut the plant back after flowering and you will have tender leaves until autumn.

Pruning and mowing

Pruning months: March and July.

When: Cut the plant back a first time in July, after flowering; remove the old stems completely in March.

How:

• After flowering, cut the flowering stems and old leaves back to a hand’s breadth above the ground: the plant then produces new, tender leaves for late summer.
• Leave a few flowering stems if you want to harvest seed.
• Leave the hollow, dead stems standing over winter and cut them down in March.

Pruning: when and how · Pruning calendar and basic rules

Propagation

Division

In March–April or September, cut off a piece of rootstock with at least one bud and replant it at once.

Seed

Harvest ripe seed in August–September and sow it straight away in a tray; older seed germinates poorly.

Lovage: how does it get through the winter?

Hardy to −25 °C.

• The parts above ground die back in autumn; the plant overwinters as a rootstock and starts growing again in March.
• Fully hardy, even in severe winters.
• The hollow stems are a winter refuge for insects: leave them until March.

Diseases and pests

• Celery fly: Brown, dried-out blotches in the leaves caused by leaf-mining larvae. Pick off affected leaves and use the rest as normal.
• Aphids: On the flowering stems in summer. Ladybirds and hoverfly larvae usually deal with them; otherwise spray them off with water.
• Slugs: They eat the young shoots in spring. Protect young plants and collect slugs in the evening.
• Tough, bitter leaves: Leaves that are too dry or too old. Water, and cut back after flowering for new leaves.
• Seedlings: If you let the seed ripen, seedlings will appear. Weed them out or give them away.

Through the year

• March: Cut away old stems. Add compost. Divide.
• April: Plant. Harvest the first young leaves.
• May: Plenty of leaves to harvest for soups and sauces.
• June: Flowering begins. Cut off flowering stems if you mainly want leaves.
• July: Flowering. Cut back after flowering for new leaves. Water in dry spells.
• August: Last flowers. Harvest seed and sow fresh seed.
• September: Harvest new leaves. Plant or divide.
• October: Freeze leaves. The foliage dies back.
• November: Leave dead stems standing for insects.

Did you know?

• Lovage appears in the Capitulare de villis, the list of plants that Charlemagne had grown on his estates around the year 800.
• The name Levisticum is probably a corruption of Ligusticum, ‘from Liguria’; from it came the Dutch lavas, the French livèche and the English lovage.
• Besides the leaves, the seeds can be used too: they taste of celery seed and are used as a spice.