Some dye plants such as rose petals, sage, and rosemary may already be growing in your garden or easily found locally. Other dye plants, such as madder, weld, or woad will only be found in the garden of a natural dyer, so the seeds and plants can be harder to find to start your garden.
I get my seeds and cuttings from a variety of different sources. Some of the best ones are:
For: Dyer’s Coreopsis, Dahlias, Dyer’s Chamomile, Hollyhock, Shades of Gold Marigolds, Hopi Black Sunflowers, Weld.
For: Dyer’s Coreopsis, Dyer’s Chamomile, Hollyhock, Shades of Gold Marigolds, Hopi Black Sunflowers, Weld, madder, japanese indigo,
For: Madder seeds (Rubia tinctoria), Dyers Chamomile seeds (Anthemis tinctoria), Dyers Coreopsis seeds (Coreopsis tinctoria), Japanese Indigo seeds (Persicaria tinctoria), Weld seeds (Reseda luteola), Woad seeds (Istasis Tinctora)
Propagation
I start most plants from seeds. One reason is because this is the cheapest way to get a good quantity of plants. I have also found that most dye plants are only commercially available in seed form because they are unusual.
In the spring, I sow the seeds of the annual plants that I like to dye with and any new biannual or perennial plants I would like to establish in the garden. Some plants such as woad, hollyhock, and weld will self seed across the garden, so I don’t always need to sow these seeds. However other plants such as marigold (tagetes), coreopsis, and japanese indigo (persicaria tinctoria) need to be sown every year.
l sow the seeds in module trays in March in the polytunnel. Alternatively, you can keep them on a sunny windowsill or in a greenhouse. I will pot the plants on in to larger pots after about a month, when the plants are handleable. This allows them to grow to a decent size before planting them out in the garden. I like to have planted everything out in the garden by mid-summer. Often, I find that plants that I don’t manage to plant until after mid summer will be leggy.
Some plants can be split by root or rhizome, such as madder (rubia tinctoria) and dahlias. These are best to split in the winter while the plants are dormant.
Some plants, such as sage and dyer’s chamomile will grow easily from a cutting. With these, I take a stem cutting that has plenty of root nodules in the spring and plant this directly in the ground. This works because I live in a damp place. If you live in a dry place, Leave your cuttings for a few weeks on the window sill in a jar of water to encourage the root growth before planting.
I love creating dye gardens. I have created four different dye gardens over the years. This spring, I will be creating a new dye garden near my studio in Devon. You are welcome to come and help me. On the 25th March, I am running a day for connecting with dye plants. Half the day will be for getting to know the wild dye plants that grow around us and the second half of the day will be looking at dye garden plants. We will sow some seeds and start to consider permaculture design principles we can apply to our dye gardens and dyeing processes. You can find out more about this day here.