Lovage: An Under-utilized Perennial Herb

A clouded sulphur butterfly with lovage umbels and coneflowers

If you’ve never tasted the herb lovage, it’s time to remedy that situation. But you won’t find it on the spice shelf at the supermarket; you’ll have to grow it yourself. Or, find a friend who does. Fortunately, lovage is a big, easy-care perennial herb that will produce armfuls of leaves and seeds for your table with almost no work from you.

Better known in Europe for its culinary value than here, lovage has been in continual cultivation since Roman times and was part of every medieval kitchen garden. It’s popular in broths, soups, salads, pickles, seafood dishes and more. In Ukraine it was once considered an aphrodisiac and even used as a hair rinse! Time to try it for yourself, especially if you like to cook.

A Woodland Beauty to Enchant the Senses

Actaea racemosa Pink Spike looks and smells divine

If you’re looking for something a little different for a shady border or to keep your azaleas company, have you considered black cohosh, also known as bugbane, baneberry, black snakeroot, or my favorite, fairy candles? For consistency I’ll call it cohosh here.

Perhaps you recognize the name ‘black cohosh’ from traditional folk medicine. One of 18 species worldwide, our native North American cohosh was once used to treat everything from snake bite to lung ailments to chirldbirth and menopause. It is still available today as an herbal supplement.

No matter what you call it, all varieties make good garden plants, especially the darker-leaved cultivars. The variety I grow, Pink Spike, is terrific. There are several others just as nice. If you’ve got a bit of moist loam in dappled or part shade, you might like to try growing this unusual beauty with its fascinating history.

The True Lilies

By “true” lily, I mean the big, showy types that arise from bulbs in the Lilium family, having either trumpet-shaped blooms or recurved petals like the Turks-cap lily. Many are very fragrant as well.

Distinguishing true lilies from masquerading look-alikes can be confusing. Dozens of plants have “lily” in their common name, but aren’t really lilies at all. They’re so-named because their flowers and foliage resemble that of true lilies. Misnomers include daylilies, water lilies, toad lilies, lily of the valley, foxtail lily, calla lily, peace lily, and on and on. None of these are true lilies!

So what exactly are true lilies?