Plant Story-- Madder, Rubia tinctorum, Famous Dye Plant

Dyer's madder, Rubia tinctorum (madder and coffee family, Rubiaceae) was the base of most red cloth in Eurasia for millennia. 

dyer's madder, Rubia tinctorum

Dye Plants: "That's A Good Dye Plant"

On a plant walk recently, people noticed that I commented that various of the plants we saw were good dye plants. Sometimes I have little else to say about native plants. On the other hand, I enjoy dyeing with plants and so I always notice which plants are good dye plants.

Here are six plants I would say "and its a good dye plant" about: 

Eucalyptus trees, Australia

Bali Dye Garden -- Yellows and Reds

Red-dyed yarn and cloth
 in Threads of Life shop, Ubud, Bali

Why did the tropical Asian dye garden lack plants for yellow dyes and have so many marked as red dyes?

I thought I knew a lot about dyeing. I’ve grown most of the dye plants available commercially, for example madder, weld, and dyer's safflower, I've dyed with spinach, onion skins, red cabbage (link) and other fruits, vegetables and spices that have a reputations for producing dyes. I've thrown practically everything that grew in my garden, from marigolds to English ivy, into a dye pot and I've gathered wild plants from aspen and bindweed (link) to yarrow to make dyes.

 Silk scarves I dyed in 2016

And yet, in Ubud, Bali, the dye garden of Threads of Life had plants I had only read about and ingredients for processes I'd never thought of trying. An afternoon was not enough to really understand what I saw.

Doubtless you are thinking: of course there would be new plants, the native plants of the central U.S. are very different from Bali, in tropical Asia. And that's is part of it.

Bali Dye Garden -- Blues and Browns

Ooh! A dye garden!

Dye Garden, Ubud Bali

In Ubud, Bali, I spent an afternoon visiting a dye garden. Dye gardens are rare. Very few people use natural dyes these days, and only a few of those who dye grow the plants they use. So the dye garden was a treat!

This dye garden, run by Threads of Life, provides dyes for local natural dyeing and for teaching about dyes. The dyes, dyed cloth and things made from the dyed cloth are sold at the Threads of Life store in Ubud. The garden is frequently used for natural dyeing workshops (see upcoming workshops: link).

Dye Plants--Colors of Red Cabbage Update

I don't see a way to upload a photograph into Comments, so I will respond here to a question on the red cabbage dyed cloth.

The original post: The Colors of Red Cabbage

Saffi commented on 9/11/15 "Lovely post with clear instructions and great pictures. Can I ask how the silk is one year on? Has the colour faded or changed at all? "

I located the silk pieces from that project. Below first, are the pieces photographed dry, from top to bottom they are alkaline, neutral and acid. The rug underneath is beige.

red cabbage-dyed silk.
Top to bottom: alkaline, neutral and acid.
photographed dry on 9/17/15

Dye Plant--Sawwort, Serratula tinctoria, Obscure Historic Yellow Dye

Persian knapweed Centaurea dealabata

Note added August 24, 2015: I had the identification of the plant wrong. Yet most of the post is correct because I talk about my experience with the plant separately from my research on dye history. I will make changes below in this font so it is clear. I have changed all the plant identications. I won't change the post title.

I like rescuing plants. You know, taking a sickly little plant, giving it good light and regular water and watching it recover. My relationship with sawwort--Persian knapweed really-- began that way. 

I was new to Colorado in fall of 2006 and finding plants for the yard of my new house. So I was looking on the end-of-the-season garden racks for promising marked-down perennials at McGuckin's Hardware Store in Boulder ("Colorado's Favorite Store"!). I chose a pot or two and got chatting with the clerk. She pointed me to the edge of the garden shop where a couple of run-down, sad-looking plants slumped over the edge of their pots and said I could have them, no charge. How could I resist?!

Dye Plant -- Colors of Red Cabbage

Many household products, such as coffee, tea and turmeric, are effective dyes. I have gotten good colors from spinach (link), but don't find much dye in iceberg lettuce or yellow cabbage. However, red cabbage, Brassica oleracea, turns the water a lovely shade and can be fun to dye with.

Unlike spinach, which gives colors from olive to yellow depending on the mordant, red cabbage is pH sensitive. That is the key to the dye project described below.

I started with one red cabbage.

Dyestuff: 1 red cabbage, Brassica oleracea

Dye Plants - Old Fustic aka Dyer's Mulberry

old fustic, dyer's mulberry, Maclura tinctoria

Old fustic, also called dyer's mulberry, was one of the most important yellow dyes in Europe from the 16th century to the early 20th century. 

It has a curious history. 

First, old fustic is a plant from the Americas, discovered after 1492 in the forests of tropical America.

Dye Plants: Yellows from Many Sources

Naturally-dyed yarns

I love color. I have knitted and woven and embroidered since I was very small. Trying plant-based dyes was an obvious intersection of my interests. Plants! Color! Wonderful! 

So off and on I will write about dye plants, even though most of the important dye plants are unknown to most people.

But dyes from plant sources are familiar. The grass stain you got on you jeans sliding into first in the neighborhood softball game? That's a basic dye found in most leaves. Leaves of many plants will produce a yellow or olive green dye. 

Plant Story: The dreadful field bindweed

Sprouting field bindweed

April 28, 2013. Bindweed!  The bindweed in my yard is up!

field bindweed, Convolvulus arvensis

   Bindweed is the bane of gardeners along the Rocky Mountain Front Range, more than crab grass, more than dandelions. 

     Field bindweed, Convolulus arvensis, is a deep-rooted perennial vine. 

      It spreads. 

      It comes back after being pulled up. 

    I wage a war against bindweed all summer, every summer. No bindweed flowers are allowed to produce seeds in my yard. And I pull up the vines when I see them. Over and over.

    I want to believe that I have made some progress. Only two or three small plants remain in my front yard. The back yard has a lot farther to go to be bindweed-free, however, and a quick look on the 28th found dozens of new shoots just breaking the soil. It snowed all day May 1, perhaps 10” and the snow was still deep on May 2. The cold will slow them, but the war with the bindweed is on again for 2013.

May 1 snow

    I try to give every plant its due. Generally I let one grow somewhere in my yard and weed out all the rest of the seedlings of that species. For example, one maple seedling is turning into a nice tree, one mullein is allowed in a secluded corner, one invading sumac can have a spot by the fence. Not bindweed. After considering letting them decorate the wood pile, I decided that they could grow throughout the rest of Colorado, but not in my yard.