How to Grow Lovages UK

By the SoilCommander Editorial Team, under the guidance of Nitin Sharma, Co-Founder · · How we check our facts

On this page
  1. Lovage (Levisticum officinale)
  2. When to Plant Lovages in the UK
  3. Quick Facts
  4. At a Glance
  5. Soil & Growing Conditions
  6. Growth Stages
  7. Harvest & Storage
  8. Diseases
  9. Pests
  10. Lovage, a Towering Celery-Scented Perennial
  11. Plan your Lovages planting
  12. Growing Lovage in another region
  13. References
  14. Frequently Asked Questions

In the UK, lovage goes in the ground early March to early April.

Timing is the decision that matters most in the UK: sowing early March, and that same window applies across all 4 regions covered here.

The short answer

Plant
Early March to early April
Site
soil pH 6–7
Biggest risk
Celery leaf spot

Core growing advice on this page is checked against named horticultural sources — see References.

Lovage (Levisticum officinale)

A tall flowering lovage plant in a walled garden — “Lovage Levisticum officinale Easton Lodge Gardens walled garden” by Acabashi is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

8 sources cited · Verified

When to Plant Lovages in the UK

When to plant lovages in the UK: in Southern England, sow early March to early April. Find your area in the table below.

A tall flowering lovage plant in a walled garden
A tall flowering lovage plant in a walled garden. Photo by Acabashi, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Region Sow
Southern England early March to early April
Midlands early March to early April
Northern England early March to early April
Scotland early March to early April
Southern England - detail & sources

RHS recommends propagation by seed or division in spring; a single spring window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since RHS gives no UK-region-specific gradient.

Midlands - detail & sources

RHS recommends propagation by seed or division in spring; a single spring window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since RHS gives no UK-region-specific gradient.

Northern England - detail & sources

RHS recommends propagation by seed or division in spring; a single spring window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since RHS gives no UK-region-specific gradient.

Scotland - detail & sources

RHS recommends propagation by seed or division in spring; a single spring window is applied uniformly across all four sub-regions since RHS gives no UK-region-specific gradient.

A page from the UK Vegetable Garden Planner PDF: the crop rotation planner, with a planning grid and four-bed rotation tips

Plan your lovage — and the rest of the plot

This page covers lovage. For every crop's sowing months on one chart, use the free UK vegetable planting calendar, and browse the UK vegetable growing guides for what else to grow alongside it. When you want the whole season on paper, the UK Vegetable Garden Planner is a printable PDF:

  • Twelve month-by-month sowing and harvest spreads
  • Raised bed, allotment and container layout pages for your own plot
  • A four-year crop rotation planner
  • Seed inventory, sowing log and harvest tracker
See inside the UK Vegetable Garden Planner →

Instant PDF download · reprint every season

Quick Facts

Detail of lovage's yellow-green flower umbels
Detail of lovage's yellow-green flower umbels. Photo: “Levisticum officinale by Danny S. - 001” by Danny Steven S., CC BY-SA 3.0.
Factor Value
Soil pH 6 - 7
Optimal growing temp 12-18°C
Minimum survivable temp -10°C
Drainage Moist but well-drained
Lifecycle perennial
Edible parts leaves, seeds

At a Glance

A tall flowering lovage plant in a walled garden
A tall flowering lovage plant in a walled garden. Photo by Acabashi, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Levisticum officinale Lovage Celery leaf spot Slugs Snails Celery leaf miner (cele… DISEASES PESTS

Soil & Growing Conditions

Lovage flower buds emerging among the foliage
Lovage flower buds emerging among the foliage. Photo by terri_bateman, CC0.

Soil pH range

6 7

Span reflects genuine variation between the cited authorities, not a single agreed figure.

Growth Stages

A mass of lovage foliage
A mass of lovage foliage. Photo by Kritzolina, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Stage BBCH Notes
Propagation 0 Propagate by seed or division in spring (RHS).
Spring leaf flush 3 Produces a flush of edible, celery-scented leaves in spring (RHS).
Flowering 6 Sends up flower stalks reaching up to 2m tall by mid- to late summer, with yellow-green flowers (RHS).
Die-back and dormancy 9 Dies down in late autumn and resprouts the following spring (RHS).

Harvest & Storage

Close-up of celery-scented lovage leaves
Close-up of celery-scented lovage leaves. Photo by Schlaghecken Josef, CC BY 4.0.

When to pick: RHS: from seed, "you can start harvesting a few leaves in their second year"; "newly-bought young plants can usually be lightly cropped in their first summer"; harvest "young leaves regularly in spring and summer"; "stop picking the leaves once plants start to flower in late summer, as they turn bitter".

Storage

Best used fresh; can be dried

Diseases

Close-up of celery-scented lovage leaves
Close-up of celery-scented lovage leaves. Photo by Schlaghecken Josef, CC BY 4.0.
Celery leaf spot

Septoria apiicola

Pests

A mass of lovage foliage
A mass of lovage foliage. Photo by Kritzolina, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Slugs

Gastropoda (slugs, various spp.)

Snails

Gastropoda (snails, various spp.)

Celery leaf miner (celery fly)

Euleia heraclei

Plan your Lovages planting

When to sow and plant Lovages depends on your own frost dates. Check the UK vegetable planting calendar. To work out where it fits in your beds, sketch your plot in the free Garden Layout Planner.

Growing Lovage in another region

Sowing dates, frost timing and local advice differ by country. Use the guide for where you garden.

References

  7. RHS explicitly advises against slug pellets (even organic) due to wildlife harm, and cites RHS's own controlled trial finding no damage reduction from physical barriers (copper tape, bark mulch, eggshell, grit, wool) -- while also noting some other studies have shown copper barriers to repel slugs, a preserved disagreement rather than a silently resolved one. Details Nemaslug (Phasmarhabditis hermaphrodita) biological control including application temperature range and its lack of effect on snails specifically.

8 independent sources are cited for this crop. Where they disagree - soil pH is the clearest case - every figure is preserved rather than averaged into false precision.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I sow lovage in the UK?

In Southern England, from early March. In Scotland, wait until early March. Treat these as a guide rather than a fixed date — the governing rule is to sow only once frost risk has passed and temperatures are reliably warm enough.

When do I sow lovage?

Sow early March to early April.

What soil pH does lovage need?

A pH of about 6–7. That span reflects genuine variation between the authorities we cite rather than a single agreed figure — the References section lists each source's exact range.

What problems affect lovage?

Our data links 1 disease and 3 pests to this crop. See the sections above for each one and how to manage it.

Plan next season before the problems start

Most of the advice on this page comes down to timing and spacing — sowing at the right moment, rotating beds, and giving plants enough airflow. The UK Garden Planner lays your plot out month by month so those decisions are already made before the season starts.

Get the UK Garden Planner →

Instant PDF download · Written for UK growing conditions

SoilCommander Editorial Team — under the guidance of Nitin Sharma, Co-Founder

Every growing guide is checked against RHS, USDA Cooperative Extension, and other named horticultural authorities before publishing. How we check our facts.

How this guide is put together

The growing data on this page — sowing windows, pests, diseases, soil and site requirements — comes from named horticultural sources, listed in References below, checked against RHS and Met Office guidance. An automated pipeline assembles that verified data into the page you're reading: it selects which facts to lead with and builds the surrounding prose and layout. It does not invent a date, a source or a number — where a verified value for a field isn't available, the page leaves it out rather than guessing. A person reviews and publishes each page; nothing goes live unverified.

Vegetable Growing Guides UK

Crops With the Same Problems

Related Problem Guides

Last verified 2026-08-29

Plan Lovages by month

The months this guide gives for sowing or planting, each with the full list of jobs for that month in the UK:

More from the same group (herbs & aromatics):

Relevant next steps

Where To Go From Here

Take this crop from reading into a written plan for your own beds.

UK garden plannerTurn this crop guide into sowing dates, bed layouts and a harvest record. All growing guidesBrowse every crop we cover for your region, A to Z. Planting CalendarSee how this crop fits alongside everything else you are growing.

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