Growing dye plants has a rich history in Sweden, where plants like woad (Isatis tinctoria), madder (Rubia tinctorum), and weld (Reseda luteola) were traditionally used to produce blue, red, and yellow dyes. During the 18th and 19th centuries, natural sources such as roots, berries, bark, leaves, lichens, and later even fungi were also used for dyeing.

As part of my journey to make my art practice more sustainable, I have been cultivating a dye garden of my own this year. 

Growing your own dye plants not only offers a broader palette of colours to work with, but natural dyes are also biodegradable, renewable, and non-toxic. By growing the plants yourself, you gain control over the entire process—from seed to dye—which is an aspect I truly love.

Of course, gardening involves a great deal of effort, time, and occasional failure. But for me, this is part of the beauty of the craft. Being able to manage the process of natural dyeing and witness the transformation from seed to finished result is incredibly rewarding.

I have a fairly small garden with limited space available for dye plants, but I wanted to give it a try and see for myself if it was indeed possible to create my own dye garden—and if it would be worth it in the end.

In this blog post, I share my experiences from my first year with a dye garden. Perhaps I can inspire others to take the leap and discover the joy and satisfaction of growing and using natural dyes.

THE PLANTS

MARIGOLD FLOWERS - Tagetes erecta

Marigold flowers are flowers I keep coming back to and plant every spring. I love their vibrant colours and their ability to attract insects. Over the summer, I harvested and dried the flower heads but haven't yet transformed them into pigment, so I cannot say anything about their colour properties yet. Even though marigolds produce flower heads over an extended season, the amount of harvested flower heads aren't abundant enough to justify their use for pigment making, especially given the limited space in my dye garden. Moving forward, these cheerful flowers will likely remain a feature in my garden but as decorative delights rather than for pigment purposes.

SAFFLOWER - Carthamus tinctorius

My attempt at growing safflower was a complete failure. The plants struggled in my garden, as the soil and environment apparently didn't suit them at all. I tried growing them both in pots and along the edge of a flower bed. While the potted plants performed slightly better, each produced only one or two flower heads at most. This means I would need significantly more space to gather enough dried material for pigment making. Given my limited garden space and the poor yield, I've decided to NOT grow safflowers again next year!

LADY'S BEDSTRAW - Galium verum

I was only able to plant a few Lady's Bedstraw in my garden this year. Many of the seeds didn't survive, and I didn't have much space left for them. I didn't harvest any this season since it's the roots that are used for dyeing, and they need a year or two to mature. 

However, I'm unsure if I'll continue working with this plant. I think I am going to focus more on madder as my primary source for reds. 

Interestingly, Lady's Bedstraw grows abundantly in the wild where I live. (SLU Artdatabanken, 2024). But I haven't come across any during my walks yet though. 

This might be a mission to find next season!

MADDER - Rubia tinctorum

I planted madder  in both regular flower beds and raised beds, and it thrived significantly better in the raised beds, growing abundantly! 

These plants need another two years before they're ready for harvest—a considerable long-term commitment! That's indeed a long time before I am able to extract some pigment but I am eager to see the results and to learn just how much plant material is needed to yield a reasonable amount of pigment. Will the effort be worth it in the end?

JAPANESE INDIGO - Persicaria tinctoria Maruba

During the spring and summer, I had the privilege of learning how to cultivate, care for, dye with, and extract pigment from indigo and woad under the guidance of the brilliant Sofia Stawåsen Brokvist. 

I planted six large pots and two raised beds (filled pallet collars) with indigo, and they flourished! 

While the plants grew well in the pots, they absolutely thrived in the raised beds, which were filled to the brim with healthy growth. 

I harvested the leaves multiple times throughout the summer and dried them indoors. 

I didn't have time to make a dye vat, but managed to get nearly 500 grams of dried indigo leaves—a significant amount!

This will allow me to prepare a vat later. Next season, I plan to focus on using the fresh leaves for pigment extraction, building on this year's success.

WOAD - Isatis tinctoria

I didn't invest much time or care in my poor woad plants. They were planted "wherever I had a spare spot,", often squeezed in between the madder plants and left largely neglected. 

Despite the lack of attention and care, they produced an astonishingly rich and saturated dye liquid from a single harvest - in November!!! From that late harvest, I managed to extract about 3 grams of dried pigment. While that may sound ridiculously little, the pigment is incredibly strong, vibrant and long-lasting. I was genuinely amazed I was able to get anything out of that late harvest! 

Given how little attention they received and how productive they still were, I'm absolutely planning to grow them again next season. The potential of these resilient and humble green plants was truly a delightful discovery! 

WELD - Reseda luteola

This was yet another incredible discovery. I managed to grow enough seedlings to fill half a pallet collar, but they were transplanted far too late in the season and grew very slowly. 

Like the woad, they received little attention beyond occasional watering. Given their slow growth, I doubted they would produce any substantial harvest. 

But, just as with the Woad, I harvested what was there - in NOVEMBER(!!!) And the pigment I extracted from that late harvest was just incredible! 

The saturated yellow was vibrant and exceeded all expectations, especially considering the late harvest.

This experience has convinced me that this is a plant I definitely want to continue working with in the future. Its potential and extracted colour is truly remarkable!

This first year with a dye garden has been a lot of hard work and a steep learning curve, but it has also been a tremendously fascinating, exciting, and rewarding journey—following the process from seed to pigment. I can't wait to start again next season!

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Reference:

Roberts , T (2024) Natural Dyes - the Top 3 European Dye Plants. At: https://www.wildcolours.co.uk/html/top_3_dyes.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 24/12/20).

SLU Artdatabanken (2024). Artfakta: gulmåra (Galium verum). At: https://artfakta.se/taxa/221439 (Accessed 24/12/20).

Svanberg, I (n.d.) Dye plants in Sweden 1700-2000. At: https://www.academia.edu/35607300/Dye_plants_in_Sweden_1700_2000?utm_source=chatgpt.com (Accessed 24/12/20).