Expand the purpose of your garden even further by exploring the world of natural dyes. There are many options for you to grow natural dye in your own garden. Even better, most of the selections below utilize the scraps of plants you are already growing! What will you grow to create your own natural dye colors?
To learn the basics of natural dye check out my post here: A Beginner’s Guide to Natural Dye.
Avocado
Where to buy: Your local nursery. I have a Hass avocado tree that I bought from my local nursery.
What color natural dye you can make: You can use avocado pits and skins to achieve varying tints and shades of pink.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: To use avocado as a natural dye, only use the pits and skins in your dye pot.
Bachelor’s Button
Where to buy: Florist Blue Boy (from $4.75, Johnny’s Seeds)
What color natural dye you can make: Using blue bachelor’s buttons you can achieve a pale blue natural dye.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: Natural dyers prefer to use dried bachelor’s buttons to create their dyes. Harvest your bachelor’s buttons after they have first opened up, dehydrate and create a powder.
Beets
Where to buy: Bull’s Blood Beet ($3.25, Seed Savers Exchange)
What color natural dye you can make: With beets, you can achieve pink to maroon natural dye colors.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: Harvest your beets and chop into approximately 1 to 2 inch cubes and put in your dye pot.
Black Hollyhock
Where to buy: Jet Black or Nigra Hollyhock ($3.00, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
What color natural dye you can make: Unlike its name suggests, you can achieve a greyish blue dye from black hollyhock.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: To create a natural dye from hollyhock, harvest the flowers when they first begin to open.
Black Hopi Sunflower
Where to buy: Hopi Black Dye Sunflower ($3.50, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
What color natural dye you can make: Like the name suggests, you can achieve black and grey with Hopi black sunflowers.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: To use the sunflower to create your natural dye, harvest the head of your sunflower and separate the seed hulls. Use the dark purple seed hulls to make your dye pot.
Butterfly Pea
Where to buy: Butterfly Pea Vine ($6.00, Little River Cooperative)
What color natural dye you can make: Butterfly pea flowers make a beautiful, bright blue natural dye. You can also alter the color of the butterfly pea dye to purple by adding a few drops of lemon juice.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: Most natural dyers recommend that you use dried butterfly pea flowers to make your dye. Harvest the butterfly pea flowers when they first open. I recommend dehydrating your flowers in a dehydrator at a low temperature and then grinding the dried flowers.
Coreopsis
Where to buy: Coreopsis, Dyer’s Coreopsis Mix ($2.75, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange)
What color natural dye you can make: With coreopsis you can achieve pale yellow to dark orange colors of salmon depending on your fabric and mordant.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: Use fresh or a mix of dried and fresh coreopsis.
Dyer’s Chamomile
Where to buy: Chamomile, Dyer’s (from $3.95, Strictly Medicinal Seeds)
What color natural dye you can make: With dyer’s chamomile you can achieve pale yellow to dark yellow colors depending on your fabric and mordant.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: Harvest chamomile buds when they first open and have not lost their petals yet. You can either use fresh or dried chamomile to make your natural dye.
Indigo
Where to buy: Japanese Indigo ($6.00, Little River Cooperative)
What color natural dye you can make: Indigo makes for a very versatile dye plant most known for producing blue.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: If you are growing as a perennial, harvest no more than half of the plant. Use your indigo leaves to create your natural dye as soon as possible.
Lavender
Where to buy: I prefer to transplant mature lavender from my local nursery. My favorite variety of lavender is French lavender.
What color natural dye you can make: With lavender, you can achieve a mint green color.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: Harvest lavender stem and bud. Use lavender fresh to create your dye pot.
Marigold
Where to buy: Marigold, Happy Days Mixed Colors ($4.95, Burpee)
What color natural dye you can make: With marigold you can achieve a yellow dye color.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: To use marigold as a natural dye, harvest the flower and use fresh or dried.
Red Cabbage
Where to buy: Ruby Perfection (from $4.75, Johnny’s Seeds); Red Acre Cabbage (from $2.50, Everwilde Farms)
What color natural dye you can make: Red cabbage produces natural dye colors varying from blue to purple depending on what modifiers you use.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: Use the entire head of cabbage to make your natural dye.
Red Hopi Amaranth
Where to buy: Hopi Red Dye Amaranth ($3.00, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
What color natural dye you can make: With red amaranth, you can get a bright magenta dye color for foods. When dying fabric, and depending on your mordant, you will produce an orange color.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: To use as a natural dye, harvest all of the amaranth plant including the leaves and stems.
Red Onion
Where to buy: Cabernet Bulb Onion Seeds ($3.49, Botanical Interests)
What color natural dye you can make: Red onion skin is extremely versatile. Depending on what mordants you use, you can achieve anywhere from a neutral green to a deep brown natural dye.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: To use red onion as a natural dye, use the outer skins only. I like to stock up on my onion skins over a couple week period. You can either keep them in a cool, dry place or freeze them.
Woad
Where to buy: Woad Dye Seed Pack ($3.99, The Woolery)
What color natural dye you can make: Woad has long been used as source of rich, blue dye color.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: Harvest woad leaves when they reach about 4 to 6 inches in length. Leave the center, younger leaves intact to encourage more growth. Use fresh woad leaves right away to create your natural dye.
Yellow Onion
Where to buy: Cortland (from $2.95, Johnny’s Seeds)
What color natural dye you can make: Depending on what mordant you use, yellow onion skins produce varying shades, tints, and hues of orange-yellow.
How to harvest and use for natural dye: Similar to red onion, to use yellow onions in natural dyeing, use the skins only. You can save up on onion skins over a couple weeks before using. Store the onion skins in a cool, dry place or in your freezer before using.