Reseda luteola Weld produces a small rosette of leaves in its first year and shoots up tall spires with clusters of tiny yellow-white flowers in its second year. This rather unremarkable looking plant creates a stunningly bright almost neon yellow dye. All parts of the plant make dye, but the leaves and flowers produce the […]
keep reading...Tanacetum vulgare As a plant, Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), has spindly foliage and a wonderful architectural shape. Its flowers are round yellow buttons perched atop stiff stems in charming clusters. In many areas it’s considered a weed – albeit a cheerful and striking one. We forage it where it is unwanted or in over-abundance and hang […]
keep reading...Rhus typhina The striking almost tropical leaves and fruits of the Staghorn Sumac adorn roadsides and woodland edges in abundance here in Nova Scotia. This sumac is native to the area and turns a stunning fiery red in the fall. It loves to grow in clumps and will readily spread over an area. As a […]
keep reading...Rudbeckia hirta, Rudbeckia fulgida Cheerful golden yellow Rudbeckia (Rudbeckia hirta, Rudbeckia fulgida) flowers signal high summer on the farm. While it’s possible to get a reasonably strong shade, Rudbeckia, for the most part, tends to dye a more muted range of colours that is appealing in a soft, earthy, natural, and organic way. One feature […]
keep reading...Tagetes patula Our petals are from a mix of french Marigolds. We love to grow rows of these cheerful flowers between rows of taller, more gangly, dye plants. One of our favourite things to do on warm mid-summer nights is to sit with a favourite movie and clip marigold petals from flower heads harvested earlier […]
keep reading...Solidago canadensis Each August, the fields around our farm turn a bright yellow with Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis). Known as a weed to some and highly desirable as a dye source to others, this plant is naturalized to our climate and soils and grows happily along the roadsides and in meadows that surround our farm. We […]
keep reading...Alcea rosea ‘Nigra’ Black Hollyhock is a stunning flower, sending up tall spikes in its second year with large dark purple, almost black trumpet-like flowers with waxy petals. The bees absolutely adore these flowers and we can hear them humming happily from several rows away. We harvest the full blooms as they open, remove the […]
keep reading...Cosmos sulphureus Orange Cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus) is an amazingly productive plant. Once it starts to flower, we have a hard time keeping up with the harvest! It seems that every morning, we look out the window and it’s ready to be harvested again. It’s also very gangly and we try to plant rows of shorter […]
keep reading...Anthemis tinctoria Dyer’s Chamomile (also known as Golden Marguerite) is one of the most adorable little button flowers. It’s so cheerful in both the farm field and in the dye pot where it dyes a warm buttery yellow that can’t help but bring a smile. Dyer’s Chamomile often sends up a few new flowers in […]
keep reading...Coreopsis tinctoria Dyer’s Coreopsis is one of the earliest dye plants to flower on the farm. We sow it in very early spring and it bursts into cheerful yellow and maroon flowers by the beginning of June. Coreopsis produces an abundance of tiny flowers that can be somewhat time consuming to harvest. We pick them […]
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