Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is one of the best blue-flowered plants around and at this time of the year it is ubiquitous–by roadsides, nudging hedgerows and even making appearances in vacant city lots.\u00a0\u00a0 The woody stems,\u00a0 rather nondescript leaves and modest buds are nothing to write home about.\u00a0 The flowers, though, distill the color of the sky at high summer.<\/p>\n
Most people think of chicory as a “wild flower,” because it is never seen in gardens.\u00a0 However, like its frequent seasonal companion, Queen Anne’s lace, it accompanied early settlers who came here from Europe.\u00a0 Chicory probably escaped early on and has succeeded so well that now we think it has always been here.<\/p>\n
Chicory is endlessly useful.\u00a0 Its leaves, flowers and buds are edible and its roots have long been used as a coffee additive or substitute.\u00a0 The one place it is not useful is in flower arrangements, because the flowers close and droop the minute the stem is clipped.<\/p>\n
Chicory dares you to simply revel in its beauty and move on.\u00a0 It requires no commitment or maintenance and responds to neglect by dazzling anyone who gives it even the briefest look.<\/p>\n
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Chicory (Cichorium intybus) is one of the best blue-flowered plants around and at this time of the year it is ubiquitous–by roadsides, nudging hedgerows and even making appearances in vacant city lots.\u00a0\u00a0 The woody stems,\u00a0 rather nondescript leaves and modest buds are nothing to write home about.\u00a0 The flowers, though, distill the color of the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[150,145,146,148,91,149,147],"class_list":["post-472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-summer","tag-blue-flowers","tag-chicory","tag-cichorium-intybus","tag-edible-plants","tag-summer-flowers","tag-wild-foods","tag-wildflowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":473,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472\/revisions\/473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}