Before this photo project, chicory was just a blue blur on the side of I-80, seen through the car window on summer road trips to my grandparents’ houses but never really appreciated. Folks, don’t make my mistake – it is totally worth pulling over to the side of the road and taking a long look at this pretty flower!
Growing hip-high and spreading out like a tumbleweed, chicory is almost a shrub. Some grooming was necessary to get it “camera ready:” trimming down the leggy branches to fit in my vases and shooting space, and picking off what seemed like handfuls of cottonwood seed that were stuck to its unopened buds.
Turns out, I could have avoided the cottonwood removal step by just waiting to shoot chicory later in the summer; it was still providing pops of blue color on the shoulders of our highways into August. But waiting is risky business. The longer a flower blooms, the more opportunities it has to be gnawed, trampled, mangled. And I haven’t found a way to predict how long each plant’s growing season will be – maddeningly, I missed out on photographing wild rose (the state flower of Iowa!) early this summer when its season ended before I could find a solution to keeping it perky long enough to shoot. I have some ideas now but they’ll have to wait until next summer.
Back to chicory: it’s pretty, it’s widespread, and it’s quintessentially Midwestern. The next time you see it out your car window, pull over!
Chicory, Cichorium intybus
Shoot date: June 30, 2019
Possible use as a cut flower: These electric-periwinkle blooms last for several days in a vase, so bring them inside!
