If you have children, you’ll know about some amazing dye plants. Tomatoes (via spaghetti sauce) are pretty good, as are blueberries and cherries, particularly when they’re mashed on a white shirt.
While many of us run for the wash at the sight of these glorious fruits being mashed into clothing, some people actively seek out plants that dye cloth. I want to be one of them. I love dyeing silk, and I would love to dye some wool this year. Through my experiments, I’ve discovered a number of plants that make lovely dyes. Over the next few years, I’ll be making a garden for dye plants. Here’s what will be in it.
Start with the plants that already grow in your garden. Did you know that many of them have parts that can be used for natural dyes? If you happen to grow red cabbage, it makes a gorgeous robin’s egg blue. If you grow beets, they dye items fantastic orange and fuschia. Other plants that don’t seem to dye items can indeed dye cloth. Rhubarb roots make yellow and orange dye, and the poisonous leaves can be used as a mordant. Onion skins also make a nice yellow dye. Berries are quite logical dye plants too, and many of us will have seen their dye properties scattered across our children’s clothing. They’re particularly good for purple and pink shades.
Flowers for dye? Of course, but the flowers that work well as dye plants can be quite surprising. If you grow St John’s Wort as a groundcover, you can also use the petals to dye fabrics green, maroon, brown and yellow. Coneflower (echinacea) gives a brown or green dye. Camilla gives a lovely pink dye. Hibiscus flowers and daylilies both give a reddish-purple dye. Many of these plants may already grow in your garden, and it’s so easy to harvest their flowers for some dye.
Roots might seem brown and boring, but they make lovely dyes as well. Carrots give – you guessed it – orange dyes. Sorrel grows so rampantly that I don’t mind harvesting it, and its roots give a dark green dye. If you have an abundance of dandelions, their roots will make a good brown dye.
The preparation for these roots, flowers, and fruits varies, and they require different mordants to look their best. If you’re growing them in your garden already, why not bring them indoors and experiment?
Image Credit: [ccpics]