Dye Garden in summer (and going down with crash!)

The Dye garden has n ever looked so good and many of the dye plants are now in flower.

Saffloweer Carthamus tinctoria just opening leaning against Hopi Red dye Amaranthus whatsit-must ask Enys for the correct Latin name as it is in none of my dye books, ( she has the one on North American Dye plants) . Behind it is Cosmos and the green is Persicaria tinctoria
Vipers Bugloss -Echium vulgare. It is a huge attractor for bees and so I managed to get one with a bee on it . This is a member of the Boriganacae family many of which give purple or blues with the roots. Someone on Natural Dyes Online mentioned a couple of years ago that they had got blue from the root. This is why we grow it ostensibly but really because Enys adores it and because it attracts bees. ( And I love it too) I haven't tried it yet. Why? Because you have to dig it up and although I always tell visitors to the garden that Enys won't let me dig it up really I couldn't bear too either. It is such a fabulous blue too.
In front the Vipers bugloss, behind Genista tinctora just opening ,with common yarrow Achilleia millifolium in full flower. You can't really see it but the Staghorn Sumach Rhus typhina is in full flower. I have never seen so many on it before and I wonder whether the flowers give any colour. Has anyone tried them?

Behind the bears is dyers chamomile Anthemis tinctoria , which is what the children will use when the BBC come to film a children's science programme in a couple of weeks. It is called Nina and the Neurones.
And the crash
A Chest infection -out of the blue not preceded by anything but an itchy cough which I put down to hay fever . So now I am on massive doses of steroids to keep my lung function from dropping to hospital admission level and antibiotics. The trouble with the steroids is that make you disinclined to sleep and to want to eat and eat and eat because you never feel full. OH woe!
Still the dye garden is lovely and DH loves doing the routine jobs like weeding and watering. And my poor student who was coming on Monday has had to pull out because of an injury to her wrist so in some ways it is all panning out. We are hoping she can rebook when she starts to recover.
I am going to have to slow down! sigh.
I keep forgetting to welcome new followers. So welcome lovely to have you all. Please do drop by and leave a note. I love getting them.

Spring in the Dye Garden Frog spawn

The frog spawn is developing fast. Now you can see heads and tails.
Enys and I pottered around the dye garden looking to see what is coming up, what needs to be done and what I want. Basically loads of blue, so woad (I.Tinctoria), chinese woad (I. I ndigotica) and Persicaria Tinctoria. Then I want lots of Dyers Chamomile ( Anthemis Tinctoria) and Coreopis Tinctoria as these go into my dye kits and the latter also makes my orange ink. Genista Tinctoria only seems to last two or three years, so this year we will have to plant some more. This year I only have one self seeded weld so I hope I find lots of wild weld! DG is going to dig over a weedy spot today so may I will sprinkle weld seeds there in the hope I will get plenty next year. I love cosmos too and holly hocks even though I rarely use then for dyeing-too pretty! This drives Enys mad as she would like to see me doing more experimental dyeing-so would I but production dyeing for the workshops and craft fairs (and for my pictures) has to come first. We will plant the black violas in the pots too so pretty even if the colour is fugitive. All the other plants seem to be doing quite well although with having had so cold winter and spring they are slow.No sign of golden rod yet, the iris pseudocorus is just beginning to sprout, buds are swelling on the rhus typhinus and a few madder spouts in one or two places. Lythrum salicaria looks totally dormant at the moment but indestructible yarrow is looking healthy. No sign of ladies bedstraw ( galium varum) however dyers chamomile and dyers coreopsis are both starting to sprout form the base. Goodee!

From Enys

Posted by Enys
Finally got the hang of writing in a blog. Should have been doing it winter when I actually had more time. Potted on 50+ of Chinese Woad last night. I can only work in the greenhouse early morning or in the evening - otherwise I'd get so hot Peter might come back and find I'd dissolved into a puddle of something or other!! This morning was reasonably cool so I got on with the Coreopsis and Baptisia australis.My evenings and dear husbands are spent watering in the greenhouse and watering the plants being hardened off outside - I'm sure they multiply during the night. Oh, and the rabbits have found my plants and are beginning their great pruning session so now I'm putting them on a frame out of their reach, trouble is I don't have enough of these frames. Have to get back to the drawing board.
I guess Helen has told you we'll be at Wonder Wool, I ll have some of my plants, so look me up if you are there.
Back to the plants.