Off the top of my head, I'd guess clover - a weed - that probably got mixed in with your lovage seed. It's definitely not lovage since that is usually a lot bigger - in the 1-2m range and has foliage more like dill or fennel since it's in that family.

(Clover from 1 of my pots, left ... lovage seeds on right.)

These are oxalis plants. Certainly not lovage. Their seed pods explode when ripe and send the seeds far and wide. Can get quite weedy, volunteers in most of my pots both green and purple :)

Oxalis.

There is a version as house plant with while flowers.

The wild one, a weed, is very invasive. I think there are green leafed as well as purple ones.

That's not lovage - lovage leaves look a lot like celery leaves. it's also not clover. But since you were looking for lovage, you can just consider it a weed and get rid of it.

Lovage is a challenge to grow. There are two ways to do it.:

(1) Start seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before frost date. and grow them on as you would any other indoor seeded plant. Keep in mind that germination rates are low, so sow the seed thickly. Also, you must harden off the plants before transplanting them outdoors.. The plants will be VERY small when you set them out and somewhat susceptible to dying off, but early transplanting is necessary because it develops a tap root.

(2) Sow the seeds where you want them to grow on your first frost date in the fall. The seedbed should be well prepared. The seeds will germinate in the early spring and you can just thin them out- but if you want to move any of them, remember that taproot and move them EARLY.

We have two lovage plants - one started using method (1) and the other started using method (2). So both work.

Spring sowing outdoors is just about useless.

Our lovage is a HUGE perennial. Dies to the ground in the winter - grows 3-5 feet tall when the weather warms up. So keep that in mid when choosing a site. One or two plants should be enough for most situations.

Duplicate deleted

This post was edited by nickl on Wed, Aug 7, 13 at 9:30

Both plants pictured above are indeed Oxalis. I believe the first one is Oxalis corniculata and the second is Oxalis stricta. The USDA plants database both lists them as native to the lower 48 States so I personally wouldn't call it "invasive" but some may certainly call it "aggressive." I personally find it very easy to pull out.

Lovage is a beautiful large herb. I started some with winter sowing this past winter. Since the seed was older, I had very low germination rate but it worked well. I love its celery-on-overdrive taste.

FataMorgana

Lovage isn't hard to grow, not in my experience anyway. Mine must be at least 15 years old; it gets to about five feet tall, so it is a tall herb. I don't actually use it for anything, although I have used the hollow stems as straws for drinks.

Hi Donna:

Well, we have different definitions of challenge. To us. a plant that required as much coddling as these did as seedlings is a "challenge". We transplanted four seedlings the first spring, and lost three of them. Even though that was a few years ago, I remember it particularly because we had usually been very successful transplanting other seedlings..

The seeds sown the immediately following fall (same seeds as we had used in the spring) had a very poor germination rate.

So that's the challenge.

Since then, the plants have grown on and became established, and I agree with you that they haven't been very demanding except for the leaf miners. But getting them to that point was something else.,

Many plants in the lovage family have seeds with short-lived viability. An established lovage plant is a great treasure in an herb garden. I appreciate this plant more and more everyday. I use the leaves as a celery subsitute for many months of the year. Recently, I added lovage to a kale puree with a lime section and made a delightful gin cocktail.