Lovage (Levisticum officinale) is a perennial plant that creates a dense rosette of leaves that resemble cellery leaves in the first year of cultivation and sprouts flowering stalks in the following years. The whole plant excretes an intense aroma, also resembling cellery aroma. Lovage finds its use as seasoning plant, but its decorative habit allows it to play an ornamental role, too. Leaves, roots and seeds of lovage are used as seasoning. Leaves may be used fresh or dried in soups, salads, boiled fish, scrambled eggs and meat dishes. Ground lovage roots are used in stock cubes and other herbal mixes, while its seeds that have anise-like taste, are added to marinated vegetables and mushrooms or used for sprinkling boiled potatoes and rice.
All parts of lovage are rich in essential oils, vitamins, sugars and resin. Lovage stimulates appetite and improves functioning of the digestive system. It is considered a strong aphrodisiac in folk medicine.
You may grow lovage on a border or in a pot, where it would look amazing. You should select deep pots for container cultivation in order to provide lovage roots with enough space to develop. The soil needs to be fertile and permeable. Sunny sites work best in lovage cultivation, but this plant will also tolerate partial shade. Lovage seeds are sown in April, two per hole, maintaining 20 - 30 cm spacings between them. These plants need regular watering during the whole vegetation period. Lovage achieves its seasoning properties in the second year of cultivation. This plant will winter on balconies, provided it is covered. The overground part dies in winter to grow back abundantly in spring. Greens for the seasonings are harvested from May to September. You may grow this plant in a container for many years, remembering to exchange the container for a bigger one every four years.
Package contains 0.5 g of Home Garden lovage seeds, as well as the sow-by date and growing instructions.
- Weight: 0.5 g
- Use: fresh or dried leaves in soups, salads, boiled fish, scrambled eggs and meat dishes; ground roots in stock cubes and in marinades
- Harvest time: May - September
- Vegetation form: perennial
- Flower type: dense rosettes of cellery-like leaves
- Site: sunny or partially shady; fertile, permeable soil
GardenSeedsMarket - has been in business for more than a decade and from the very beginning we have made the quality of our products the top priority. Throughout the years we have delivered the best quality goods to tens of thousands of customers from all over the world. Their satisfaction proves that we had chosen the right way.
All seeds we sell are subject to a multi-level quality control checks and only then are carefully packed and dispatched. Our products have been awarded numerous certificates and comply with the highest standards of the European Union. Our employees are experienced gardeners who are more than happy to answer your every question.
Where do our seeds come from?
All of the seeds sold in our shop come from the best producers from across the European Union. Thanks to a long-standing cooperation with them we were able to develop the most adequate storing and dispatch conditions, guaranteeing that you always receive fresh and carefully tested batches of seeds. Exclusion of the middlemen from the whole process not only makes it possible for us to avoid sending out-of-date seeds that might have been lying too long on a warehouse shelf, but also ensures the most attractive price for top quality products.
The quality control process
All our seeds must pass a four-stage quality control process.
Stage one begins with a careful selection of the suppliers. Than we proceed with controlling their crops, foreign producers are not excluded from the quality control process. Plants are checked at every stage of their development: when they start to grow, during blooming and when they start bearing fruit (seeds). At this stage the most important thing is to ensure proper spacing of the plants. Thanks to that obtaining the desired morphological characteristics of each particular species or variety, such as colour, height and shape, can be ensured.
Stage two consists of a detailed verification tests in laboratory conditions. With the use of the highest quality equipment by the highly qualified staff, our suppliers perform more than 30 000 quality checks annually. The seeds that do not meet our requirements are subject to technological refining processes, including drying, cleaning, upgrading and testing again.
Stage three starts with sowing seeds in selected control plots. That way we obtain valuable, exact information concerning their germination that must be maintained at an appropriate level. Simultaneously, the varietal identity of each species is checked at this stage.
Stage four takes place in our warehouses and consists of eliminating seeds that have been stored for too long on our shelves and replacing them with new batches. Each package is stamped with a unique batch number and also with the sow-by-date.
All four stages combined allow us to state with confidence that the seeds we deliver comply with the highest standards and have completed all required control stages with flying colours.
Prizes and awards
The seeds we sell are widely recognized for their quality and have won many awards. Our seeds won numerous gold medals and distinctions for their high quality. The World of Flowers was also honoured for its innovative approach.
Among those awards there were: TOP INNOVATION (June 2015), GOLD MEDAL AT THE POZNAN INTERNATIONAL FAIR (2015), CONSUMER QUALITY LEADER (2014), FARMER OF THE YEAR (2014).
In addition, we have also been awarded the “IDEAL BUSINESS” certificate for two years in a row.
Germination
We are committed to selling only the highest quality seeds. Taking into consideration the efforts we make daily, please also note that plants are living organisms and their germination and growth depends on many factors, such as temperature, soil type, humidity and the frequency with that they are watered, sowing time and conditions, use of fertilizers and plant protection agents (pesticides), as well as weather and climate conditions. We provide help by sharing the accurate and up-to-date sowing and growing information, however, we cannot bear any responsibility for the plants that were not cultivated in conditions appropriate for given species.
