Cichorium Species, Chicory, Italian Dandelion, Radicchio, Succory, Witloof

Here in eastern Pennsylvania, it grows everywhere. I'd say it is moderately invasive, but as others have said, it is pretty - if you get ...Read Moreup in the morning. By noon or 1 p.m it closes up just like a morning glory, and opens new blossoms randomly along the stem. They don't make a good cut flower because they do bloom randomly all along the stem. The foliage is nothing special either, but the periwinkle blue flower heads are lovely. I would not put it in my garden, and I happily mow down the ones on my lawn, but I still have them wherever I can't reach the grass, along the road, etc. The nice thing about them is they are really tough, and if you do grow them, they're like echinacea, black-eyed susan, etc. needing no care at all. Like Topsy - they "just growed" there.

We have an empty plot in front of our house and it is filled with chicory. The field of blue flowers is so pretty. I want to try to grow ...Read Moreit in my garden.

Chicory has naturalized it's self here in Maryland, like it has in other parts of the United States. It hails from Eurasia but is a commo...Read Moren sight alongside roads, ditches, and abandoned areas here. It also pops up in lawns, as it has down along my drive. It never spreads aggressively or really out-competes anything. I never find it in any flower beds.

Not a morning person, I don't get to see the flowers very often but when I happen to be awake during the morning, when this plant is blooming, I am impressed by it's startling blue flowers. The flowers soon fade by noon time unless the day is very overcast.

Foliage can be used as a vegetable or in salad and the root can be roasted and ground to be used as a coffee substitute or additive. In the frontier days, many people used chicory in place of coffee.

The blue flower, chicory, or italian dandelion, grows profusely on roadsides in chilliwack, b.c., and a little more than an hour ago I ch...Read Moreatted with brian minter about it. i had had to drive 60 miles away to get the seed, since minter gardens didn't have it. and why should they, since it grows a riot in this town. i want to propagate it adjacent my white trailer in white shaded, concrete square pots alongside scabiosa for a mauve effect alongside a bird bath that will show off an amethyst quartzite formation embedded in tumbled river rock. don't get any delusions. i am NOT a gardener...

The Cichorium intybus flowers are predominately blue or lavender, but occasionally there will be some white flowers.

I have always known the blue chicory, but this year found some white growing in the ditch down by the field that we planted millet in. v...Read Moreery pretty in white as well as the blue.

Good thing that I like Chicory, because it grows naturally all over my yard. I have never sown this plant, but anywhere that I do not run...Read More the lawn mower or weed-eater, I have more than enough of them. At first I thought they were some form of Lactuca and had considered chopping them down. I am glad that I didn't now, because the blue flowers really add some color to the landscape. It's lanky stems and Lactuca like foliage are not the most attractive sight, but the flowers make up for that. Seems to grow best in untilled high clay content soil around naturally occuring Lactucas, Mullein, and Sassafras.

Too funny! Here I go and buy a mix of herb seeds and get all excited about "chicory"...this stuff grew WILD in the ditch in front of my ...Read Morehouse growing up!

The stuff used to poke me in the legs as I mowed it...and now I've intentionally planted it in my herb garden. Funny how everything comes full circle.

I found in nature Cichorium intybus with white flowers, much better than with blue flowers, really ornamental plant, long flowering perio...Read Mored July to September.

I'm told the wild examples I see along roadways and sidewalks are escapees from gardens. I haven't had good luck getting it to start fro...Read Morem seed, but it comes where it wants to. A neighbor says it is a weed, because he didn't plant it; I figure it's a gift. He cuts it down and it comes back anyway.
My favorite flower - it comes out on my birthday and blooms every morning all summer; not overly showy, from a tough, unsightly stem.
My grandmother, a Hungarian, used to mix ground chicory root with coffee, making it taste stronger. I've done that, but I don't feel like collecting and eating something that grows in car exhaust. Apparently the leaves can be eaten in a salad, too.

A cheerful little weed that grows along the roadways and in vacant lots. It seems to prefer the hard packed ground for some reason.
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Flowers fade by noon, but they are so intense that they are worth keeping them around, despite their short lives.

I happen to like chicory flavored coffee. I didn't get a taste of it till my adult life and was introduced to it by a Cajun friend...I immediately became totally addicted.

This plant does not grow in my current neighborhood but it grows wild in every other place I've ever live in this country. It's not invas...Read Moreive in the strict meaning of the definition, but it is naturalized. And, to my thinking, a welcome citizen it is. The ice blue of the flowers--which die everyday at midday--is unmatched in the plant kingdom for clarity. It is an absolutely beautiful flower.

Edgewood, Washington
One of the best blue flowers around. It grows as a weed here along side of the road and in vacant lots. Lov...Read Moree the clear blue flowers and the wirey stems. Only admire it in the wild, can become a pest in the garden.

I have never grown this plant, but I was raised on the Gulf of Mexico, and my Mother was from South Louisiana, and every morning she made...Read More coffee with chicory, just as her parents had, in a drip coffee pot, and it was a vile liquid that was almost thick enough to stand a spoon up in.

Consequently, I have never liked coffee, which I guess is a good thing, and I have become a hot tea drinker instead. I think this herb not only has a bad taste, but a very unpleasant and lingering aftertaste. I guess, like Scotch, it is an acquired taste.

I was not aware of this plant until I saw it growing wild on the edge of our local park. I like the blue color and have collected some s...Read Moreeeds with hopes to try to start a plant or two. Any suggestions? BobM