Cichorium intybus 'Rossa Di Treviso'

Chicory is a bitter-tasting vegetable, used as a winter crop and harvested to eat in autumn and early spring salads. The leaves can have a bitter taste, but blanching these before eating can help reduce this bitterness. It thrives in well-drained soil in full sun to partial shade. There are three different types of chicory: 'forcing' chicory, red chicory or radicchio and 'non-forcing' chicory.

Cichorium intybus 'Rossa di Treviso' is a tall-growing 'non-forcing' chicory which grows a lot like lettuce. It bears heads of maroon and white leaves with thick, pure-white stems.

So Cichorium intybus 'Rossa di Treviso' seeds direct, 1.5cm deep in well-prepared soil, from April to August. Alternatively raise in modules under glass from March.